With locks on the doors to the emergency room, the waiting room of the outpatient offices, and most wards empty by noon yesterday, the Luis Eduardo Aybar Public Hospital in Santo Domingo East was closed yesterday, Wednesday 10 December 2014 in order to make way for its demolition and the construction of a new project. Thus ends 68 years of service with all of its ups and downs.
From the early hours of the morning, reporters observed the desolation resulting from the move: the hospitalized patients were taken out, some to their homes and others to other hospitals, according to their needs.
The fact was that they have to hand over the building by Monday, 15 December 2014 at the latest, in order for demolition to begin.
Jorge Santana, 45, was shaking from a chill resulting from a high fever. He was the only remaining patient in Ward 1H2, which he had shared with six other patients. His doctors were waiting for an improvement in order to give him a referral.
In two years, when the new hospital is inaugurated, this model of ward will not exist. President Danilo Medina prefers rooms that contain just two beds in order to guarantee the privacy of the patients and their families.
Patients expressed their distress when they went to their medical appointments and found the outpatient offices closed. They were in a state of shock for several minutes outside the door to the consultation offices for outpatient treatments until a security guard came by to tell them where their records would be handed over and referrals made to a hospital where they will be treated from now on.
The uncertainty also came over several administrative employees who claimed that the authorities had not told them where they would be transferred.
The hospital administration has prepared a location at the old doctors’ offices of the National District City Council on Barahona and 27 Febrero avenues for human resources and administration to inform employees about their work situation.