A report in Hoy newspaper focuses on the dire conditions in Santo Domingo’s main public trauma hospital, Dario Contreras, which deals with an average of 60,000 emergencies and performs between 10,000 and 12,000 complex surgeries every year. The article quotes hospital managers as saying that hospital is drowning in debt as its monthly subsidy of RD$7.5 million scarcely covers the cost of maintaining the old building in which it is housed.
As well as financial problems, the medical and support staff are concerned about their exposure to violence as the hospital has no police or military presence to protect them and the private security service, costing RD$90,000 a month had to be suspended due to lack of funds.
According to hospital director Hector Maceo Quezada, if the building collapses it cannot be fixed, and the septic tanks inside the building are causing humidity and a stench.
He said that even though the hospital is RD$121 million in the red they never turn patients away even though they are poor and have no money, and that many hospitals refer poor patients as well as patients with insurance.
www.hoy.com.do/el-pais/2012/12/11/458265/El-Dario-Contreras-con-deudas-superpoblado-y-muy-hacinado