AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye The care and emergency treatment of Mr. Fred Somes

kudos to you all.

Diane, the big issue is long term financing.

Training, supplies and equipment are small obsticles.

Please approach SPBA with "how do we get this effort financed long term?" question.

Also a local leader needs to "spearhead" this effort.

Long term financing for public health care facilities is GoB's job.
If GoB can build a 45 bed clinic in Toledo it can staff a polyclinic here.
They have money!! It's how they spend it that the public needs to have a voice in.
When we allow GoB to sidestep it's job on AC we perpetuate an inequality that has been in place far too long.
AC is the rain-maker for this country. Gotta take care of it for the country to move forward.
IMHO SPBA and other groups should not try to take on jobs for which they are not qualified and for which they have no time - but exerting pressure on the right gov't bodies, informing public, and doing once-off projects where results are clear and measurable - that is something do-able.

Does anyone have information of how many people over a year needed this kind of treatment?

We got excuses 18 months ago of no money when we asked for more police protection on AC ...... but when a viable suggestion (BDF patrols) was made directly to the PM, it was met with an "Ok - yea we can do that". And GoB came through - it took a lot of private sector support and co-ordination (Rebecca, Tim, Cal and Amanda, Legacy, Captain Morgan's, and others deserve standing ovations for their contributions)
--- BUT the base/oversight of the operation was/is from GoB
BEcause of that, this program is now part of our infrastructure.
The brainstorming may yield some ideas about how to work with what we have - including existing budgets and personnel. If you keep that in mind something is more likely to happen.

I think there needs to be absolute clarity on who the potential patients are. Are you providing equal care regardless of ability to pay for ER care and transport, or are you looking to serve only those people that can pay for the best? I don't see a value judgment on either choice but it needs to be clear.

FYI - the much referenced Master Plan deals with land allocation for appropriate infrastructure - including health care.
I'll try to scan the page on infrastructure and maybe Marty can post it.

Pam's point is important - and so is information on the value and availability of decent insurance that will cover these things.

If we can replace the "have-a-bake-sale when there is an emergency" plan with a "get a group policy" plan, we would have part of the answer on funding.

SPBA can provide a model - we're business people and have workers and this could start a trend or at the very least solve a few problems for people we care about.

I'll work on details on that and make them available.

Pam, no doctor that I have ever worked with has ever performed a wallet biopsy prior to providing emergency medical care.

Emergency medical care is intended to be available to any person with a true medical emergency regardless of social status, religion, ethnicity, sex, age or any other categorization the patient may fit into.

The GOB is required to provide basic emergency medical care to critical patients regardless of whether or not the person has money.

Most certainly insurance and the ability to pay for care will need to be a factor that will be addressed at the appropriate stage of planning.

Most tourists tent to have travel insurance and would be able to pay for care that way.

Many people have insurance to pay for their care and should be expected to pay when possible.

The Belize social security system pays for health care.

At the moment we are discussing an emergency room - not a place to go after hours because you have the sniffles. I would imagine that if you have the sniffles you would be attended to, and you would have to pay for that attention.