Santo Domingo.-Getting on the sidewalks, driving recklessly and mounting more than one person are just some of the recklessness committed by motorists, a situation that has made them the most involved in traffic accidents in the country.
This is reflected in the number of patients treated in specialized trauma hospitals, where 80% of those arriving correspond to motorcycle accidents, followed by pedestrians and buses.
billions
More than 2,231.20 million pesos have been paid by the country’s main Health Risk Administrators (ARS) for members who have suffered a traffic accident, without the year having yet concluded, resources with which a high-level hospital could be built. in a province, just to give an example.
This is only an estimate within Social Security, so this amount could vary if the data from 2023 is taken into consideration, when 121,850 people were injured, which represented 130,000 million pesos for the health system, data revealed by President Luis Abinader recently.
In detail, the Government allocated 1,500 million pesos through the National Health Insurance (Senasa) to care for these patients so far this year, for more than 63 thousand members of the different regimes and plans, who have been affected by this cause. For its part, the Association
Dominican Republic of ARS (Adars), which brings together five private administrators, had allocated 731.20 million pesos until September, although its data does not specify the number of affiliates in the contributory regime, who required health care as a result of road accidents.
High consumption
And the cost in this type of patient is high. An example of this is the Ney Arias Lora Traumatological Hospital, whose budget is around 800 million pesos and, of that amount, it is investing more than 600 million pesos in patients with multiple trauma due to accidents.
So far this year, this hospital has received around 75 thousand patients via emergencies, of which 87% (65,250 patients) are due to traffic accidents, due to the nature of this trauma hospital.
Of that amount, the director of the center, Julio Landrón, explained that those injured by motorcycles exceed 80%, that is, more than 50 thousand patients of the 65,250 they have received this year.
Bikers lead
— Lethality and crashes
According to Julio Landrón, motorcyclists lead deaths due to traffic accidents by more than 80% and he highlighted that the majority of accidents also occur between motorcycles and other motorcycles.
Accidents affect family and economy
Health. Traffic accidents impact the family, health and economy of the country, since the age of those affected ranges between 19 and 40 years, which is when it is estimated that the person is most productive, and these patients stop working. up to three months for recovery.
“An accident that lasts around two to three months and sometimes up to a year without attending work or contributing to the country’s economy, this will have an unfavorable impact on the family’s livelihood and economic mobilization due to the large number of patients. currently involved in accidents and who have a medical license,” said Dr. Julio Landrón.
Last year the National Statistics Office counted 1,949 deaths due to accidents.
