At a time when the Abinader administration has been criticized for major delays in the completion of the Ciudad Sanitaria Luis E. Aybar, the largest medical complex in the country, the National Health Service (SNS) comes forward saying they have delivered 51 hospitals and 570 primary care centers. The Abinader administration has invested in infrastructure upwards of RD$6 billion and another RD$2.6 billion in equipping since the change of government in the second half of 2020.
Speaking during the presentation of “Advances and innovations of the Public Health Hospital Network 2020-2024,” SNS director Mario Lama said the investments and renovations have benefited 200 hospitals and primary care centers nationwide.
Lama says the SNS has been restructured and there are now new departments: Medicine, Dentistry, Infrastructure, Clinical Laboratories and Imaging and Mental Health, enabling advances in public health centers. Lama said that 168 public health centers now are certified in compliance with the public health pharma-therapeutic guides to ensure standardized care. He said the Abinader administration has added 100 new hospitals to the Public Administration Monitoring System (SISMAP).
As reported in El Caribe, Dr. Lama mentioned that neonatal mortality is down to 14.9%. Neonatal mortality is high in the Dominican Republic as Dominican public hospitals receive thousands of Haitian women who come without prenatal care records and many in serious health conditions. Lama says the government seeks to segregate the data between natives and foreign women.
Lama says the Dominican government spends around RD$15 billion a year to care for the Haitians who benefit from free medical services at the public hospital network nationwide. Several hospitals nationwide mostly serve the Haitian population. The numbers of Haitians seeking free medical services has increased with the collapse of medical services in Haiti in recent years due to gang violence.
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SNS
El Caribe
26 June 2024