President Luis Abinader, together with Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez, met on 23 March 2021 with several ambassadors who have shown an interest in helping build hospitals in Haiti.
The lack of and cost of medical services in Haiti has resulted in thousands traveling to the Dominican Republic to receive free services at Dominican public hospitals. In many local hospitals, upwards of 30% of the patients at any given time are Haitians seeking free medical services in emergency rooms. The Dominican government estimates it spends more than RD$5 billion a year to give assistance to Haitian women that come to give birth here.
At the lunch meeting held at the Convention Center of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Dr. Amado Alejandro Baez presented the “Haitian Border Health Project Proposal” to the ambassadors. Dr. Baez had head the Covid-19 Response Management Team during the Medina administration.
The conversations are a follow-up to the agreements reached in the joint declaration signed by President Abinader with Haitian President Jovenel Moïse who agreed to be open to the collaboration of the international community to finance the construction of hospitals in Haiti to reduce the intensive use of Dominican hospitals. The agreement establishes the government of Haiti will decide the location of the hospitals.
Read more in Spanish:
Ministry of Foreign Relations
Listin Diario
El Dia
24 March 2021