San Pedranos and their many visitors now have access to a fully equipped private hospital. It's a place called Hope and Jomarie Lanza was on the island on Friday night for the official opening. Here's what she saw.
Ambergris Hope Hospital in San Pedro has been fully operational since December 1st, fully equipped with all the medical technology and diagnostic tools to offer an array of healthcare services to residents and tourists on the island.
True to its name, it offers hope and dispels worry for those living 36 miles out at sea, away from the larger secondary and tertiary care facilities on the mainland.
Now the people of San Pedro can be rest assured that this private facility can handle and attend to any patient in need of an operation, a CT scan or emergency services.
It's a major plus for this tourist driven community:
Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism
"It is very very important to have this type of infrastructure here in the biggest tourism destination here in the country and so when Dr Hidalgo and Dr Gabourel asked me to be here today to join them and celebrate this inauguration and this opening I did not hesitate. I can't underscore the importance of having this type of facility in this location."
To highlight this major healthcare milestone on the island, an official opening ceremony was held on Friday night. We spoke to one of the doctors who helped to make this dream a reality. Dr Daniel Gonzalez is a native islander who specializes in diving and OB-GYN. From the vantage of this throughly modern facility, he recalls when the island had little to no medical care or services growing up as a child - and to open this facility now, is a dream for him.
Dr Daniel Gonzalez, Dive Doctor, OB-GYN
"It definitely has well it has fulfilled me. It definitely has changed from when I came back 30 years ago like I said, there was not much in the island and before that when I was growing up in San Pedro, there was nothing totally nothing there were clinics with nurses that used to apply vaccinations, but that was it but as you know over the years when San Pedro started developing as a main tourism center, the tourism destination it started changing. the more and the needs for the foreigners and for the expats that we're living here and that's where the idea of building a facility like this came from it definitely has changed San Pedro has grown over the years at the beginning, where We were maybe when I grew up here there were maybe 500 1000 people living here. I know we are about 30,000 so definitely the needs of San Pedro has changed and it has definitely grown and the needs are bigger so that's the reason why a hospital is really needed."
With up to 35 members on staff and with an investment of almost 6 million Belize dollars, Hope Hospital's general Manager, Cora Guillen says that she can proudly says that the island is now up to speed in terms of health services often sought out by visitors:
Cora Guillen, Hope Hospital, General Manager
"Oh my goodness so much work has gone into this we started in July or June started with procurement things for as far as beds and new equipment that we wanted to bring here EKG machines CT machine ultrasound machine, all kind of different items that we wanted to make sure that we have available to our community and then of course we needed to find nurses and find desk staff and find all of those different things down to toilet paper and things like that so probably about 6 to 7 months of procurement and then finally we started and took over on December 1st."
Jo
"How does it make you feel to know that you guys are able to provide this level of care out here on the island where people are so accustomed to getting airlifted to the mainland whenever they need certain procedures done?"
Cora Guillen, Hope Hospital, General Manager
"I am so excited, one I am excited to be in the position I am to be able to say I want this done and I want that done but I am so excited for our community. This is something that as a tourist I heard that we that Pedro needed and now that I live here I am just so excited to be part of bringing this to our community bringing this to our tourist. I hear all the time do you have a hospital? Can you take care of this? Or I won't come, and now we can say yes, so I am really excited."
And while that private facility has been opened and its CT scan is OPERATIONAL - the good news tonight is that - just in time for elections - and 19 days after the Minister said it was in country - the long, long awaited CT scan for the KHMH is set to be delivered this week. It's way overdue - and will take a few weeks to install, but, we can confirm, the eagle is about to land.
