KHMHA CEO Apologizes

CEO of the KHMHA, Chandra Nisbet-Cansino is tonight apologizing for comments made earlier this week. After the KHMHA Workers Union fired off a release last week about the shortages of medication and equipment at the hospital, Nisbet-Cansino provided this newsroom with the figures for specific equipment and medication available at the hospital as of February 7. Well, the Union interpreted the CEO’s comment as her alluding that the Union’s position was baseless. This evening, Nisbet-Cansino acknowledged the shortages, saying that she never intended for her comments to be misinterpreted. 

Chandra Nisbet-Cansino, CEO, KHMHA: “I want to take the opportunity because there has been a lot of contention with the release issued by the union in regards to the shortages which I think kind of triggered all of this and my response when I gave numbers of available supplies and I think it came off as if I was not agreeing that there are shortages that the union was not telling the truth which was not the case I just gave the updated numbers and so that’s an area of contention with the union and I and so I want to apologize if I offended anybody by saying what I said or by sharing the information that I shared because really the intention is to collaborate and to resolve and to move forward so I just wanted to make sure that the union received that message.”

Reporter: You agree there’s a shortage ?

Chandra Nisbet-Cansino, CEO, KHMHA: “There are shortages of supplies off and on it really depends. All I responded to was the list that was there but I really don’t want to rehash it because I really hope that my approach would be towards putting that behind us and being able to move forward.”

Reporter: How serious is that though because this morning Mr.Baird had mentioned that they’re tried of coming to the KHMH and can’t be able to work with the resources that they do not have. 

Chandra Nisbet-Cansino, CEO, KHMHA: “Well we deal with whatever we have to deal with on a daily basis. If we run out of tape we buy tape as long as we can buy it. I think we’ve kind of hashed this out over and over and over. Whatever the ministry can provide they provide. They have sat down with the ministry and they have discussed the tender process which is I think being improved as well so there are lots of things that are being done to correct that but that is not a short term process that will take a little bit of time before we get to where we want to be with that consistency that the union and everybody in the healthcare system would like to have.”

Reporter: Do you keep stock of the medication and equipment on a daily basis ?

Chandra Nisbet-Cansino, CEO, KHMHA: “Yes there is an electronic register the central medical stores supplies in the Belize Health Information System keeps track of the supplies that the Ministry of Health supplies to Karl Heusner.”