The launch of pepper spray, baton blows, struggles, blockades of roads, and shoves in the vicinity of the National Palace characterized this morning the march of the Dominican Medical College (CMD) and the Association of Private Clinics (Andeclip) in demand of better conditions in the hospitals and that hospitals not be privatized.
Dr. Senén Caba described the action of the Police officers as outrageous.
The doctors, led by their president, circumvented the police fence on Mexico Avenue near Doctor Delgado Street.
Caba fell to the pavement when he tried to advance on Mexico corner Doctor Delgado.
Dr. Francisca Moronta, general secretary of the CMD, was one of the most affected by the police officers who pushed her and almost threw her to the ground.
The president of the Medical Association denounced that among the members of the boards, to whom the Government intends to hand over the hospitals, there are people who would be linked to the latest corruption scandals, especially the Medusa case, where there are supposedly some of those members of those boards.
20 bankrupt clinics
Meanwhile, the president of Andeclip, Rafarl Mena, denounced that there are 20 bankrupt private clinics after the social security law came into force.
He warned that other clinics could go bankrupt for lack of more resources.
Mena said that the ARS have not improved doctors’ fees in 20 years and criticized the government for supporting other sectors in the area that are managed by patronage.
He added that the high rate of electricity and the payment of taxes has the owners of clinics crying to heaven.
“They are going to monitor the resources that are given to these hospitals, monitor people who are more serious than them, such as nurses and doctors,” said Dr. Caba.
He said that none of the 43,000 doctors that make up the CMD can be accused of being involved in the Medusa case.
He assured that the volunteers are permeated by corrupt personnel.
“We are not going to accept volunteering at Father Billini, or at the Luis Eduardo Aybar hospital from those people,” he said.
He indicated that if we were talking about traditional volunteers, decades old, made up of people from the community with humanistic, philanthropic, well-known attributes, that’s where we talk.
He argued that these volunteers are going to do business in hospitals.
He asked that the incentives of the doctors be recognized for the distance and for the time they work.
Their demands include the creation of more than two thousand places, after assuring that with the latest pensions and retirements nearly six thousand doctors have retired due to illness, old age or transfer and those places have remained empty.
He denounced that the health centers in the towns are lacking in supplies, medical personnel, nurses, psychologists and laboratory technicians. He pointed out that in the Salvador B. Gautier hospital, more than one hundred nurses are missing.
“The relatives and the resident doctors have to be cleaning the room because there is no staff and the government is saying that things are fine,” he complained.
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He said that the fight plan that begins today is to demand that there be better conditions in the hospitals, that the years of work of the doctors who have been ignored by the Treasury be recognized.
The march started from the Maternity Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia.
He said that Mario Lama, head of the National Health Service, has him dizzy and that yesterday he received a call from Vice President Raquel Peña and this morning the Minister of Public Health called him to inform him of the suspension of the reception at the National Palace.
normal hospitals
Health services were offered normally in the Sanitary City of the Luis Eduardo Aybar Hospital (former Morgan), despite the day of protests called by the Dominican Medical Association (CMD) that included a march to the National Palace, demanding improvements for the health system. In the old Morgan, dozens of patients received consultations this morning, laboratory tests, X-rays and other services were carried out, according to El Nacional reporters. Although long queues can be seen in areas such as billing and laboratories, the health sufferers were treated by the medical and nursing staff at the health center.
