President Luis Abinader visited the Luis Eduardo Aybar Health City on 30 September 2025 to inaugurate the last remaining hospital included in the mega health complex. The capital city medical city center was begun in 2012 during the government of former President Danilo Medina with an announced budget of RD$4 billion. President Abinader announced that it has been completed at a cost four times the initial announced cost.
According to the Minister of Housing and Edifications, Carlos Bonilla, the total investment in the Health City amounted to RD$16 billion. The current administration executed RD$3.2 billion of that amount to finalize approximately 30% of the remaining work.
The surgery building, the last to be completed in the mega health city, was named to honor neurosurgeon Jose Joaquin Puello who took on the responsibility to complete the project left half way by the past administration. Puello continues to diret the Luis Eduardo Aybar Health City complex.
The Dr. José Joaquín Puello General Clinical-Surgical Hospital will offer a range of clinical, surgical, and emergency services. Key features are:
• A dedicated burns unit.
• A hemodialysis area equipped with 24 general cubicles and 4 isolated ones.
• 14 operating rooms.
• 40 Intensive Care Units (ICU).
• 232 hospitalization beds.
The facility is also slated to be used to attend to emergencies for athletes participating in the Central American and Caribbean Games to be held in Santo Domingo next July and August.
The director of the National Health Service (SNS), Mario Lama, outlined the hospital’s opening phases:
• October 20 will mark the first phase, with the opening of the hospital’s Burns Unit and the second floor. This includes 16 ICU units, three operating rooms, laboratories, imaging areas, and part of the third floor’s internal medicine wing.
• November 24 will see the opening of the third and fifth floors, which house the remaining internal medicine areas and operating rooms, respectively.
In addition to the new Dr. José Joaquín Puello Hospital, the Abinader administration previously delivered other key structures within the complex:
• The B2 Outpatient Clinic building in 2021.
• The Administrative Services Building (Building A) in August 2024.
• The Maternal and Child Building (Building B1) in December 2024, specializing in pediatric and adult emergencies, obstetrics, pediatrics, neonatal ICU, and operating rooms, among other services.
Read more in Spanish:
Presidency
El Nacional
Hoy
Listin Diario
1 October 2025