Haitian ambulances with pregnant women arrive daily to the Dominican Republic from Haiti so the women can give birth for free in Dominican public hospitals. The ambulances must pass several military checkpoints to get to the public hospital of choice in the Dominican Republic. The media, legislators and municipal authorities have consistently criticized the military for being lax in applying migration laws.
The public hospital of Restauración, in Dajabón province to the northwest serves the population of Tirolí, located 20 kms away in Haiti receives hundreds of these women. It is normal for more Haitians to be receiving care than Dominicans at that hospital.
El Nacional reports that many times the pregnant women arrive on the Haitian ambulances accompanied by Haitian medical personnel. Medical staff in Dominican hospitals say many of these women have serious conditions and need to be referred to public hospitals in Dajabón city, or those in Valverde province or Santiago.
The complaint of border hospital staff is that the medical assistance to women from Haiti practically swallows the economic allocation assigned to them by the National Health Service (SNS).
El Nacional consulted the National Health Service (SNS) to see if there was an agreement to allow the entry of these ambulances into the country. The journalists were told to ask at the Migration Agency.
Mario Lama, director of the SNS, said there is an average of 3,000 deliveries of Haitian mothers each month in Dominican public hospitals, according to the records for the first five months of the year.
In the report of births of Haitian mothers January-May of the current year, the maternity hospitals notified 14,745 to the SNS, equivalent to 33.6% of the total number of cases, which rose, in the same period, to 43,914 within the public hospital network.
Lama said that in January 2023 alone, 3,315 births were attended to Haitian mothers, for 36% of the total registered, which was 10,864 cases.
In February, according to data from the National Health Service, there were 3,379 deliveries, equivalent to 35.6% of the 9,481 attended in general.
In March, 2,510 births were reported to Haitian mothers, out of a total of 7,533 procedures performed, or 33.3%. In April a total of 8,152 births were performed, of which 2,815, or 34.5%, were Haitian.
Last May, 7,844 births were registered in the public network, of which 2,726 were foreigners.
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El Nacional
27 June 2023