Are the doctors in Ambergris Caye good?

I am not a very sickly person, so when my daughter or I get ill, we go first to the local Polyclinic here on Ambergris Caye. It is a local, free, 24 hour manned clinic, but they are really great.  They also have the little tuktuks  that drive around anytime of the day that can pick you up and take you to the clinic.

 

When we first arrived here on Ambergris Caye, I had lots of insect bites, so the doctor at the Polyclinic always gave me...

I am not a very sickly person, so when my daughter or I get ill, we go first to the local Polyclinic here on Ambergris Caye. It is a local, free, 24 hour manned clinic, but they are really great.  They also have the little tuktuks  that drive around anytime of the day that can pick you up and take you to the clinic.

 

When we first arrived here on Ambergris Caye, I had lots of insect bites, so the doctor at the Polyclinic always gave me the right cream and the right antibiotic and I was well within a couple of days. When I needed to get my lab tests done for my residency visa, I had to go and see a doctor. They took a blood test and the results were all ready in half an hour. Medical care is very quick here on Ambergris Caye.

 

Pills for older people can be gotten quite easily and there are doctors here on Ambergris Caye who can look after you. There are also specialists in Belize City that you can fly over to see. But if you have problems with mobility, it might be a bit difficult to live on Ambergris Caye, since the island is not that wheelchair friendly. I think people come to see the heyday of their retirement in Ambergris Caye. If it comes to the point that you need to be in assisted living, then it might be time to go back home. That is what most people do. They go back to their own jurisdictions to see their last days with special and assisted living communities. It breaks some people’s hearts. I have known a couple of gentlemen who have gotten very old and they cannot move, but they won’t accept help, so we had to call their families and tell them that it was time for them to go home.

There is a free clinic in Ambergris Caye where you can go anytime. You can get in line and wait for the doctor there and it doesn’t cost you anything. They only take contributions, so you are not forced to pay for anything. If you have an emergency, you would probably not choose to go to the free clinic.  In addition to the free clinic, there are also local private doctors on the island.

 

I was cleaning up my desk one day and sliced my thumb...

There is a free clinic in Ambergris Caye where you can go anytime. You can get in line and wait for the doctor there and it doesn’t cost you anything. They only take contributions, so you are not forced to pay for anything. If you have an emergency, you would probably not choose to go to the free clinic.  In addition to the free clinic, there are also local private doctors on the island.

 

I was cleaning up my desk one day and sliced my thumb open on a piece of glass. Usually, I would have just wrapped it up with a big paper towel for about 30 minutes to an hour. I wasn’t really paying much attention to it until a friend saw it and said I should go to the doctor. So I went to the local private doctor, who cleaned my thumb and stitched it up with 13 or 14 stitches. This only cost me about US $150, which I paid out of pocket, with zero insurance. I think that procedure would have been 1/10 of the cost in the US.

 

When I went, there was no one else in line. I just walked directly to her office. A week later, I went to the free clinic to get the stitches out, because I wanted to try that service. They took the stitches out for free, but I gave a donation.

 

Private care in Ambergris Caye is good for things like stitches, broken arms, flu, colds, etc. You would probably not get your cancer treated by someone here nor would you have a heart-replacement surgery, but we have some very good medical doctors on the island for basic care.

 

If you have some serious illnesses, you might have to check with your doctor about living here in Ambergris Caye. It all depends on your condition, but certainly you would not find radiation treatment here. Those things are yet to come. Diabetes tends to be a large problem in this country, so there is a better knowledge of that illness here. Some of the things that I think the doctors here know more about are conditions like the stomach flu, and other smaller sicknesses that you could get on a regular basis because they encounter these types of conditions quite a bit. Bug bites and spider bites are things that we do not usually see in the US, but are very common here, so the doctors here in Belize are very knowledgeable about how to treat them.

 

But for more serious illnesses, I would probably be more inclined to head back to the States or head to another Central American country that would have a facility that is more in tune to cater to those more serious medical needs.

The doctors in Ambergris Caye are good since most of them have been here for 15 to 20 years, so they are very familiar with the types of medical issues you could have here. All of them are either trained in Mexico, Guatemala, or Cuba. I know a lot of people who go to Cuba to be nurses. There are also others who go to the States and study there. Nurses and doctors go to the States. Most of them go abroad to study. They don’t stay here in San Pedro or in Belize to study.

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The doctors in Ambergris Caye are good since most of them have been here for 15 to 20 years, so they are very familiar with the types of medical issues you could have here. All of them are either trained in Mexico, Guatemala, or Cuba. I know a lot of people who go to Cuba to be nurses. There are also others who go to the States and study there. Nurses and doctors go to the States. Most of them go abroad to study. They don’t stay here in San Pedro or in Belize to study.

 

If, for example, you were diving and you had a stroke, or something bit you, or if your case is something that the doctors cannot treat here, they are going to send you right away to Belize City. They have a hospital there that is American-oriented. There are American doctors there so that would be their first option. But if you have a relatively minor problem, the doctors in Ambergris Caye are going to be very qualified because they have been here for a long time and they know how everything works. If there is anything that is way more serious, they get you to the hospital in Belize City.

 

(Visitors to Belize who contemplated emergency care for their child, pictured.)