But while this patient will have to bring her own tape and Tylenol, at least she'll be able to have her child at no other cost to her.
However, Belize City residents, and even those out-of-district mothers with high risk pregnancies, will still need to pay up. That's because - while the KHMH isn't a state run hospital, it is THE public hospital, and it is also the national referral hospital, plus the most affordable secondary and tertiary level hospital in the most densely populated part of the country.
So we asked the Minister if there's. Any possibility that eventually KHMH will also have its fees removed and, well….maybe….don't hold your breath.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"That's the reason why we have Matron Roberts, we have the other clinics we have within the city. KHMH is a tertiary facility, we need to ensure that we differentiate that. KHMH provides tertiary care and some level of secondary care for the people of the city, but its main purpose is to provide tertiary and higher level care for people who need to be referred to KHMH. The reason for this is that we're now making sure that the people of the city can access the Matron Roberts, can access the Cleopatra White, and so forth, to get the services. And with the NHI roll out coming next year for Belize City in the Northside as well, that's even going to expand more and reduce some of the strains at KHMH as well because a lot of people go to KHMH and then a lot of times they don't necessarily need to be at KHMH, they should be at the Matron Roberts or at Cleopatra White and the other polyclinics and so what we're trying to ensure is that we have accessible services available to our Belizean society so while yes, KHMH is a statutory body and while yes they run their own affairs, they run their own operation, government subsidizes KHMH through subventions, through providing medications and so forth, we cannot just simply jump and tell KHMH you should do the same, they have to look at the entire functionality of KHMH. Remember, KHMH, as I said, will, and again, they have other services that they provide to the citizens of this country and so our focus was on our community and regional hospitals as the ministry who is full responsible for that, we regulate the services of KHMH, but we do not manage KHMH."
