It's been a busy couple of days for the nurses and staff at the Belize Specialist Hospital. They have been working with the Doctors that came in as part of the world pediatric project, to see a number of children and babies in need of special care in Belize. Jomarie Lanza stopped by the clinic today to find out more about the services that they have been offering in pediatric care during their visit. Here's that story.
The Belize Specialist Hospital has partnered with World Pediatrics to provide surgical interventions to 60 pediatric cases in Belize. The Alliance Medical Corporation has loaned them their facilities to carry out their work in Belize these past 4 days.
Robson Moreira, CEO, Alliance medical Cooperation
"This year we were glad to be able to provide them the space and support of our crew and everybody else so they are doing an amazing job with us, not only in terms of business because we are doing practically pro bono but because it is very beautiful to see the kids being helped or the whole country being supported here and it is interesting because they asked only for a day and now we are providing four days. So we extended it to 4 more days and we closed all our business to be able to provide them with the space for the surgeries for four more days after that and it has been a success. It its very heart fulling to come here and be at night and see the families and kids being helped so more than the business itself it is interesting to see how can we help Belize in this case."
60 of these patients were screened at the KHMH this past Sunday and now these children will be able to receive the specialist procedures that they are in need of. The office manager for World Pediatrics says that they are expected to conduct somewhere between 20-25 surgeries depending on each case.
Khandice Joseph, Office Manager, World Pediatrics
"We are having our annual pediatric general surgery mission we had our clinic on Sunday at the KHMH where we screened all the patients and from those patients we decided which patients would be surgical candidates and we are partnering with the Belize specialist hospital where we are doing the surgeries here this week."
"So our patients are primarily from birth to 21 years and we are here this week to do surgeries, pediatric cases that cannot be done by the local team here in Belize so our team came in on Saturday and like I said we did the screening on Sunday and we are here to do renal biopsies, bowel obstruction, gallstones, hirschsprung disease, gastro esophageal reflux cases these are cases that are reviewed and then they decide which surgeries will take place."
The Clinic has been operational since 2008, providing primarily gastrointestinal care, but have expanded their services since then. This expansion also includes their partnership in pro bono work with World Pediatrics.
Ray-Ann Anderson, Head of Nursing, Belize Specialist Hospital
"We offer a wide range of services here at the hospital. We have a procedure room where we have most gastroenterology cases, we have an operating room where we perform a vast number of surgeries, we have a hospitalization room, consultation clinics and a recovery area. We offer urology services, surgical services, admissions, emergency trauma and we are open 24/7 for emergencies."
"The 60 is closed and those are the patients that have already been chosen and they will be here for the remainder of the day up until tomorrow night and after that the clinic will be closed."
Reporter-
"So tomorrow night is the fourth day?"
Ray-Ann Anderson, Head of Nursing, Belize Specialist Hospital
"Tomorrow is the fourth day."
There will be another clinic next year.
