In what will certainly be a very controversial move, President Leonel Fernandez will officially begin the renewal of construction of the HOMS medical center in Santiago. As the eye of a growing controversy, HOMS (Metropolitan Hospital of Santiago) started out as a private consortium of major medical, business and academic leaders in an effort to create, in Santiago, a state-of-the-art facility for diagnostics and treatment at the most advanced level. However, the project ran into incredible cost increases as the result of the banking fiasco of 2003 and construction was halted.
In recent meetings with the President, meetings that included the rector of the PUCMM, monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, the Minister of Public Health Sabino Baez and nearly all of the business and medical leaders of Santiago, the President announced that the government would become a partner in the project to the tune of US$25 million.
According to La Informacion from Santiago, the “controversial State investment” has stirred up strong reactions from the medical community. In today’s edition, the boards of directors of the three oldest private clinics in Santiago, Clinica Corominas, Centro Medico del Cibao-UTESA, La Union Medica and the Centro Materno-Infantil all reject the government’s posture as giving too many privileges to one business sector. The centers are not against HOMS as such, but rather the enormous participation of the government in what was supposed to be a private enterprise. According to the directors, medical services in the Cibao are covered by the best latest technology in the entire region, including Cuba. Even the PLD deputy Julian Serulle has come out against the government’s participation in the project, together 14 other deputies from the province of Santiago.