The KHMH will be fixing up in the new year - in the parking lot and the intensive care unit. The ICU will get a 384 thousand dollar makeover, while the parking lot will get a 256 thousand dollar re-design. Contracts were signed with contractors today at the hospital. First to the parking lot - where users who are not staff or patients will have to pay for use:..

Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth, CEO - KHMH
"In the case of the parking lot we've been feeding complaints now for the last 4 plus years and its gotten worse as the present surface has sunk and when it rains, more than half of the parking lot is un-usable, its long overdue, it will improve, it will allow us also to monitor and control parking."

"Patients and visitors will have access obviously, but people from outside who want to have access will have to pay a small fee to get access."

Carlos Perera, Director of Finance - KHMH
"We will be setting up a system in place where those parties that you mentioned, Belize High School, Heritage Bank, Social Security, the Lions Club and so forth will be required to pay a fee. We are looking to see if we can actually bring in somebody from outside who manages parking lots and how to assist us in setting up the system in place."

"You would be surprise the amount of traffic that goes through the KHMH parking lot and when we did a study for approximately 3 months. The numbers are up there, you are talking about 250 cars per day running in and out of the KHMH compound."

The parking lot contract was awarded to CEV Construction - and if the rain holds it should finished by February. In the intensive care unit where over 200 of the most dire cases are treated every year, that area will be entirely re-modelled. And while it will be an inconvenience it won't be that much of a problem because the occupancy which is usually at nearly 100% has gone down significantly with the downturn in violent crime in the city:..

Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth, CEO - KHMH
"It's going to change the ICU from a closed model to an open model of surface which would allow better observation and monitoring by the nurses and also we are going to put in some additional service in there such as acute dialysis for ICU patients, so they have to be moved."

"It's all in the name of improvement; improving service, improving the working environment. The technology will improve as well, the monitoring ability - everything we have set our sights on - improvement."

Chandra Cansino
"The occupation rate is 80% - 100%. It was 100% when the crime rate was higher, but now that the crime rate is so much lower, we have a little bit more space to accommodate perhaps elected surgeries."

Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth, CEO - KHMH
"On average, the cost for an ICU stay is around $5,000 for the number of days that the average patient might stay. But we also have extreme cases. Some of the neurosurgical cases for instance can be quite difficult and require prolog stay, require repeated interventions and those can run into tens of thousands per patient."

The Intensive Care contract was awarded to Usher Construction - and it should be completed by April or May of next year. The majority of the Financing is provided by the Belize Bank at 8%.

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