Dominican hospitals are suffering from a severe shortage of medicine. The reduction in supplies from the government’s drug program (PROMESE) has placed the hospitals in a critical situation, according to Listin Diario. They say they are spending almost all their state subsidy to buy medicine and are building up a debt in some cases larger than RD$5 million. Hospital directors say that every month they have to perform miracles in order to pay their suppliers and guarantee they have enough medicine to treat their patients. In some cases, patients must pay for their own medication at the time of treatment. The supply problem began last December, but in the last three months the crisis has worsened and drug shipments have been reduced to a minimum, to a point at which some hospitals consider PROMESE to be an unworkable entity.
