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Ministry of Health officials met with management of the Healthcare Partners Hospital today. As we’ve been reporting since last week, kidney patients have been up in arms -and even picketed the hospital because of the resignation of their nurse Maria Coc. She has been replaced by two trained but not certified nurses. The problem this week is a “hemodialysis informed consent form” which patients requiring dialysis are now required to sign. Healthcare Partners say it is nothing new but the patients say it is and some have refused to sign it.

With lives in the balance, it was bordering on a crisis and today the Ministry intervened. Coming out of the meeting is a decision for Director of Health Services Dr. Michael Pitts to visit Healthcare Partners Hospital tomorrow to assess the nursing services and review the quality of care offered at the dialysis unit. The Ministry of Health did however review the informed consent form and a release says it was found to be compliant with standard medical practice. And that’s just what the hospital’s Public Relations Officer Collet Montejo says is their position.

Collet Montejo, Public Relations Officer – Healthcare Partner Hospital
“The consent has been put in place from the get go. As a matter of fact it was being used even under UHS days. All we did was make some minor changes, get our logo etc. onto it, and the only problem I think some patients are having was that the ones that came onto the program signed a consent form when they first came on and then that’s it. But now what we are saying to them is we need you to sign a consent form each time you do dialysis.”

Keith Swift,
“Because the patients contend that you guys want to absolve yourselves of any liability specifically yesterday one of the new nurses was attending to a dialysis patient and they ruptured the fistula I think.”

Collet Montejo,
“As a matter of the patient ended up doing their dialysis fine and it was just a minor procedure that was done to identify the vein. But as a medical institution these are standard, basic protocols. I think the Belizean people need to understand that if you go in to do different procedures at a hospital, there are consent forms.”

Keith Swift,
“We know they had a meeting today. Are you able to tell us what was the outcome?”

Collet Montejo,
“To my knowledge, the meeting was very positive between us and the Ministry of Health. One of the things that was reviewed was the consent form and my understanding is that the Ministry of Health will be sending out a release saying that yes the consent form is excellent and it is standard protocol throughout hospitals.”

Keith Swift,
“So if a patient comes in for dialysis and they refuse to sign that form, will they be denied treatment?”

Collet Montejo,
“We are saying to them, we want you to be objective in this. The form is in no way saying if you feel there is any form of medical malpractice you cannot seek legal recourse. The form is simply saying that we understand the circumstances under which we will receiving the dialysis and we are prepared to receive the dialysis. It is a standard form internationally. So we don’t want to tell patients you will be denied services, we want to say them look objectively at it and understand that we also have obligations that we have to meet. We want to offer you the service, we are simply saying we need your consent.”

Montejo told us that Nurse Coc has been replaced by two trained nurses. There is still no nephrologist on staff at the hospital but on the form it says that a “Dr. Luna” will be conducting phone consultations. Apart from all this, Montejo says the Healthcare Partners Hospital is winding down its dialysis services since the dialysis units at the KHMH and La Loma Luz will be operational by April. Government says the memorandum of understanding between WORTH and government should be finalized shortly.