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Hard Talk About Northern Regional At House Meeting
posted (November 30, 2012)
The Northern Regional Hospital has been much in the news recently for a number of obstetric and neo-natal mishaps.

Today at the House of Representatives, Area Representative for Orange Walk East and private clinic owner Dr. Marco Tulio Mendez openly catalogued a number of those sad cases in graphic detail and demanded an answer from the Minister of Health, Corozal Bay's Pablo Marin:..

Hon. Marco Tulio Mendez
"Now after hearing the stories of this patient - of these suffering mothers, when you see them depress, devastated, in grief, that loneliness that they are going through - it really make you wonder. It makes you wonder what the hell went wrong. Now Mr. Speaker, there are many patients. I just want to briefly give you some of them. We have Ms. Magdelena Chable, 31 years old. She reported that she had a rapture bladder and a child with severe asphyxia. If you may allow me Mr. Speaker, I just want to show - this is an image of that baby. We always say that photos are worth more than a thousand words - this cat scan on this baby has suffered brain damage with severe - I would say more than a million neurons, million brain cells that have died. This child won't be able to speak, walk, and learn. This is not the only patient; we have Ms. Coh, a 17 year old patient, just a teenager. Her baby has severe asphyxia - they reach on a timely hour at the hospital. They did their pre-natal care, yet that baby has severe asphyxia, severe brain damage - the same. That baby will have disability for the rest of their life."

"We have Ms. Alicia Pott, you saw her in the media, a very brave woman. She went through 3 operations, ended up at the Karl Heusner Memorial hospital, almost dead. It is very important for the ministry, for the Minister to come out with a statement. This is not personal Minister and I hope that you are not personal on this occasion."

Hon. Pablo Marin, Minister of Health
"Everything is in investigation. So we have to wait until when the investigation of the 4 neonatal cases happen. But first, the letter that you were talking about - you were the one that wrote that letter, so you are the one and the way you are talking right here."

Speaker of the House
"What's your point of order member?"

Hon. Marco Tulio Mendez
"No member shall impute improper motives; I have not written a letter. It had been signed by the patient. They are the ones that have signed. This is a signature; the letter that I wrote is to the medical counsel."

Speaker of the House
"Member, if you didn't write the letter I will give you chance to say you didn't."

Hon. Pablo Marin, Minister of Health
"You know that you wrote that letter."

Hon. Oscar Requena, Toledo West
"I am particularly concerned about the lack of x-ray services Mr. Speaker at the Punta Gorda Hospital. I am concern about the fact that the ambulance for San Antonio constantly breaks down Mr. Speaker. Our people ate concern that the health services in the Toledo District are not being delivered efficiently because of political interference Mr. Speaker."

"Mr. Speaker I listen to the sad situation related by the Honorable Member from Orange Walk East and of course I want to join and I want to record my solidarity with those families who have been affected and afflicted by the lack of appropriate services by the Ministry of Health. Mr. Speaker there is no excuse; health is a basic right and we owe it to our Belizean people. I must say that I was totally disappointed to listen to the member from Corozal Bay beat his chest and respond by saying that there was a conference and that doctors from outside were saying everything is well. We don't want people to come from outside and tell us. We know our reality here in Belize and the reality is that those services are not being delivered to our people and as a result they are suffering and that must be corrected Mr. Speaker."

Hon. Pablo Marin, Minister of Health
"Our friend from Toledo West was saying that we don't need people from outside to tell us how our Ministry is doing, I will invite you to go to my Ministry. We have the records on hand that state that we are giving twice the amount of medication, we are seeing twice the amount of patients in our hospitals - that means we are performing."

After that, Marin's response on this matter of extreme public interest degenerated into personal attacks.

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