And while the AIDS experts were at the Radisson, the Ministry of Health was at the Radisson to discuss the "Belize Public Health Capacities to Respond to Emergencies" survey, which was conducted in 2012.
Stakeholders from all over the country attended the session to examine the strength and weaknesses of the report and to find ways to better respond to emergencies:
John Bodden - Principal Public Health Inspector, MOH
"In 2012 actually we had done an assessment of the public health sector in this country to see where we are at in responding to any emergency in the country and as such we had all the different stakeholders in the country come together and look at what we've been doing over the last number of years and identify where there are actually strengths and weaknesses. So today actually that report will establish what those weaknesses are and where the strength need to further continue to ensure that we are better prepared to respond to any emergencies and not just hurricane in this country."
"The report so far speaks of many area that we have significant weakness in and the need for further development of those specific areas to ensure that we are in a state of preparedness. Some of these areas for example communications where there is still not that networking among the different sectors or agencies that respond to disaster and of course we also have the issue of training which should be conducted periodically. If you want your staff to be fully prepared you need to have consistent training and it has to be done periodically and so those are two of the areas where we see significant gaps and the need for strengthening."
"This morning we have the people from the Ministry of Health, we have from NEMO and we also had invited some others who are not here currently because of other circumstances, but primarily it's the Ministry of Health."
At the end of the session the Department plans on developing a plan of action.
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