3. Air-ambulance(s)

How the hell are you going to keep Air-Ambulance(s) in the AIR when you can not keep one Ambulance on the ground?

The ambulance had something to do with St. Matthews medical school. I don't know if it was ever up and running.

I saw a great rural ambulance in Scotland that was a land rover.

It really is unacceptable, considering how current communication and corresponding information and education have improved man's lot, that people continue to suffer needlessly in numbers that have changed little per capita over many years on Ambergris Caye. Sure, urgent medical attention is only one serious problem.

Also, we don't pretend to understand politics, let alone Belizean politics, but it is at least astounding to learn here that persons who consistantly demonstrate incoherence have political aspirations!

What we wish to understand, is why emergencies on the island must be evacuated to Belize City. Are there yet more political obstacles when evacuating to Mexico? Wouldn't it be better to evac to Chetumal General than to KHMH? Ugh!

Always interested in this topic, but as noted, we have seen it before. Interest goes up when something happens, and fades after a few weeks. As some of you know, our group, Bandage International, composed of emergency room docs and paramedics, has been to San Pedro 8 times. We have at our own expense helped train hundreds of people in first aid and rescue and for a while had a a decent rescue team build around Island Ferry. The company is gone and the team not far behind I'm told. We have also offered to:

1)Coordinate bringing in Canadian/US trained volunteer ER physicians/paramedics (and equipment) on a rotating basis for 1-2 week stints during the high season if they could simply be found a place to live.
2)coordinate an emergency health summit
3)continue to train rescue volunteers in the community and at hotels/businesses.

The first two ideas simply fell on deaf ears and the third has suffered from a general lack of interest and coordination. The simple fact as I see it is that politicians or business, or ideally both, need to be behind making something happen and so far that hasn't been the case. Good emergency health care is good for all people and it's good for business. Change needs it's champions and eventually this will become a big enough priority either through foresight (hopefully)or after enough bad things have happened.

As always, happy to help, but there's only so much you can do if the "buy-in" is not there. Would rather be treating folks there than on a cool foggy night in Halifax....

Doc John