NewsWhore
03-26-2009, 06:20 PM
The director of the Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia Maternity Hospital, Dr. Juan Cid Troncoso said yesterday that of every 100 patients they see, 24 are Haitians. Of 80 births that take place on average every day at the country's largest public maternity hospital, 20 are to Haitian mothers. He explained that treating Haitian nationals costs the hospital RD$300,000 per month of the RD$4,800,000 it receives from the government.
He said the costs of caring for the Haitians are greater because they are more likely to come in with complications from diabetes, hypertension or severe anemia and remain at the hospital for up to 40 days. "Normally, five or six women arrive at the same time with an advanced delivery. They bring them on a bus and leave them without a single relative to support them. Many arrive bleeding and we have to find blood for them," said Dr. Cid Troncoso.
The doctor pointed out that in the Maternity Hospital people are treated without any discrimination between locals or foreigners, but the critical conditions in which several foreign patients arrive tend to distort the Dominican Republic's health statistics.
"Here no one is stopped at the entrance, nor is anyone refused treatment, for one simple reason: Humanity." This is why the hospital has decided to separate statistics for foreign and Dominican patients. Cid Troncoso told reporters from El Caribe that, "Dominican public health statistics are tarnished by patients coming from Haiti." After Haitians, the hospital receives a large number of Colombians, and sometimes also foreign patients from countries such as Italy, Cuba and Venezuela.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
He said the costs of caring for the Haitians are greater because they are more likely to come in with complications from diabetes, hypertension or severe anemia and remain at the hospital for up to 40 days. "Normally, five or six women arrive at the same time with an advanced delivery. They bring them on a bus and leave them without a single relative to support them. Many arrive bleeding and we have to find blood for them," said Dr. Cid Troncoso.
The doctor pointed out that in the Maternity Hospital people are treated without any discrimination between locals or foreigners, but the critical conditions in which several foreign patients arrive tend to distort the Dominican Republic's health statistics.
"Here no one is stopped at the entrance, nor is anyone refused treatment, for one simple reason: Humanity." This is why the hospital has decided to separate statistics for foreign and Dominican patients. Cid Troncoso told reporters from El Caribe that, "Dominican public health statistics are tarnished by patients coming from Haiti." After Haitians, the hospital receives a large number of Colombians, and sometimes also foreign patients from countries such as Italy, Cuba and Venezuela.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)