State Hospital System is a Disaster
Ξ July 15th, 2005 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Costa Rica |
State Hospital System (CAJA) is Collapsed According to Ministerio de Salud
According to an recent evaluation by the Ministerio de Salud (Health Ministry) the state hospital system in Costa Rica has practically collapsed. That news was made public by the Ministerio de Salud to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) on Tuesday, the same day that nineteen people lost their lives in a fire at Calderón Guardia hospital in downtown San José.
Most critical is the state of the hospital’s buildings and the lack of medical, nursing and pharmaceutical staff, the report said.
I disagree! The safety factor is equally, if not more, important
Most have no emergency fire exits, not all the fire extinguishers work and if they do work, not everyone knows how to use them.
The report measured the standards maintained by the CCSS at it’s hospitals. The results? All the state hospitals (except the new hospital in Alajuela), failed the test in all areas. The state hospitals barely make the grade at the lowest levels of standards.
The San Juan de Dios is the oldest of the state hospitals dating back some 160 years. TV photos today showed a disaster waiting to happen. Ironically, after Tuesday’s fire, all patients were moved there!
Dr. Miguel Alfaro, chief of surgery at the Hospital San Juan de Dios made this comment:
“There is one Costa Rica on paper and the other in practice…”,
Earlier this week, one Spanish language daily newspaper showed the failure of a hospital to react in an emergency when it took 15 minutes for security personnel to find the key to an locked emergency stairwell at the west side of the building.
Just incredible!
Tag: Costa Rica
