An editorial in Diario Libre today, Wednesday 16 September 2015 points out the incongruence between the government decision to spend billions on a new cancer hospital next door to the traditional privately-operated non-profit cancer hospital. Yesterday, Tuesday 15 September 2015, a two page feature report in El Dia revealed that while the Instituto de Oncologia Dr. Heriberto Pieter receives more than 46,000 patients a month, the new Hospital Oncologico Rosa Emilia Tavarez built by the government at a cost of more than RD$5 billion has barely seen 530 patients since it opened 14 months ago and continues to be affected by construction deficiencies.
In today’s editorial, Diario Libre executive editor Adriano Miguel Tejada points out the incongruence. He says that now the government is obliging affiliates of the governmental health insurance provider Senasa (which insures government employees and people on low incomes) to use the services of the new hospital rather than the Oncologico. “Why damage something that is working? Why does the PLD have this Stalinist compulsion to control everything, trampling over anyone in their path, in this case harming the poor patients of the country?” he writes. “If they want the hospital to operate, why not deliver it to those who have the experience of treating cancer and training cancer specialists?” he asks.
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/am/extrano-caso-de-cancer-LD1261481
Pacientes con cáncer de todo el país abarrotan Heriberto Pieter