Belize is one of the seven nations located in Central America and has the lowest population density of any country in the region, numbering approximately 380,848 in 2018. In recent years, the government has decided to prioritize healthcare in Belize. In order to do so, a plan has been put into action to help in this endeavor.

In April of 2014, the Ministry of Health in Belize released the Belize Health Sector Strategic Plan for 2014-2024. This was done in part to show the commitment that the government has made to improve the health and livelihood of its citizens, as well as to create clear milestones for the government to reach in its pursuit to have a healthier Belize in the future. In this plan, the government identified the six pillars required to improve healthcare in Belize: governance and leadership, service delivery, financing, human resource in health, health information systems and medicines and technology.

Some main areas of focus are maternal health, child mortality rates and infant mortality rates in Belize. Belize has been working to improve the health of women and children and had already been providing mobile and community clinics that treat the leading causes of mortality in women even before the Belize Health Sector Strategic Plan was developed.

These efforts were reflected in the data presented in the plan, which shows that between 2003 and 2012 the child mortality rate dropped from 21 deaths per 1,000 live births to 18.3 deaths per 1,000 live births. During this same time frame, the maternal mortality rate dropped from 82 deaths per 1,000 live births to 41.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. Though these are significant decreases in both child and maternal mortality rates, the Belize Health Sector Strategic Plan has a proposed target of 10 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

In order to reach this new goal, the government of Belize has been making infrastructural advancements to its health sector. One example of this is the opening of the Chunox Polyclinic. The official inauguration ceremony for the polyclinic was held on February 16, 2018, and it is hoped that the opening of this clinic will help to reduce the maternal and child morbidity and mortality rates in Chunox, Progreso, Sarteneja, Copper Bank, Little Belize, Fire Burn and Newland and other surrounding communities.

Some of the other advances that the government hopes will come from the opening of the Chunox Polyclinic include a reduction in water-borne, food-borne and vector-borne diseases, as well as communicable and non-communicable diseases. The clinic cost an estimated $979,219 and was funded in part by a loan from the Caribbean Development Bank, with the rest of the funding provided by the government of Belize.

This increased effort from the government of Belize to improve the health of both women and children is just one way in which the nation is attempting to improve its health sector overall. With the continued efforts of the government to meet the milestones that it has set for itself in the Belize Health Sector Strategic Plan, continued improvements for healthcare in Belize can be expected.

– Nicole C. Stout

Photo: Flickr