A report in Acento looks into a major remodeling project of 56 hospitals announced by President Danilo Medina in 2013, in the first year of his first government. Among the hospitals is the San Francisco de Macoris Regional Hospital, the San Vicente de Paul. An investigative news story by Alicia Ortega recently aired showing how little had been done on that hospital despite millions having been spent.
During the report, Acento focuses on how engineering and architectural firms were given but two weeks to bid, and then even those who had won the bids were asked to turn these over to another that did not participate in the bid, in violation of the National Procurement Law.
The story also looks into how the cost of renovating these hospitals increased severalfold.
What is most sad is that now when they are most needed, to care for patients with the coronavirus, the nation gets to see their real status.
President Danilo Medina had announced in his 27 February final account to the nation that 13 hospitals would be inaugurated before the end of his term. He included in that list the San Vicente de Paul in San Francisco, which Alicia Ortega’s footage in her “El Informe con Alicia Ortega” on 30 March 2020 shows almost everything seems to be missing to offer adequate health services at the hospital. Also included in the hospitals to be soon inaugurated by the President is the José Maria Cabral y Baez hospital in Santiago, the country’s largest. Instead, to cater to the demand for hospital beds due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the government has found itself preferring to rent private clinics in Santiago.
Probably the saddest note, though, is that no date is being given to start moving patients into the 600-bed Luis Eduardo Aybar medical complex in the National District. President Danilo Medina had announced to the nation on 27 February that the hospital would be inaugurated on 10 March 2020.
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Acento
3 April 2020