The three-day strike of the medical staff at Salvador B. Gautier Hospital has today extended to the Presidente Estrella Ure?a Hospital in Santiago. At Jaime Oliver Pina Hospital in San Pedro de Macor?s the staff have planned a walk-out for tomorrow to also show their support of the striking doctors. These demonstrations are despite an agreement in which the Ministry of Social Security (IDSS) agreed to resume the flow of medical supplies to the beleaguered Santo Domingo hospital. Medical union representatives maintain that conditions are still well below the standards required in order to carry out their work effectively.
With the imminent switch over to a new social security system, the government-run social security hospitals have been receiving less and less support. The plan is that thousands of former governmental system beneficiaries be signed on to private hospital plans. The head of the Ministry of Social Security (IDSS) himself, Dr. William Jana, is a high-profile investor in a large private clinic being erected in the Naco area.
Hoy?s editorial today asks ?What the hell is going on at the Salvador B. Gautier Hospital, a hospital considered in the past the pride and joy of the Dominican medical system because of the high level of its staff and hygiene?? It also asks whether anyone will take pity on the situation at a center that is funded, in great part, by deductions made to private employees paychecks.