It still does not dawn and the row on the outskirts of the San Juan de Dios Hospital reaches the other block. Most are patients from remote areas, who await the hope of being treated. But the scene is repeated. A handwritten poster hangs from the previous night at the main door: 120 -hour unemployment. THE NEWS REThe row runs, some lower their heads, others protest and others just shut up. They know that they will run out of a record again that allows you to access medical care.
Others have scheduled appointments, but disappointment is greater. The hope of being treated vanishes and waiting, which was already long, transforms into weeks of uncertainty. Not only do they lose the consultation, they must start from scratch, return AmAdruge, face long lines to reprogram the appointment. Each postponed procedure delays the beginning of treatments, and with it, anguish grows.
So far this year, public hospitals accumulate a month of paralysis of their services due to different protests convened by workers, doctors and professionals in the sector. The causes vary, but withSequences are the same, patients without attention, postponed diagnoses and interrupted treatments.
This Monday, it was the health workers who started a five -day strike, demanding a vaccination bonus. The measure will be extended until Friday and the damage as well.
Shirley Martínez arrived at 6:00 from the First of May, confident that he would finally achieve a consultation with the specialist, after a month of waiting. It was derived with a reference order from the Municipal Hospital, and since then it has been looking for a file. He has kidney problems and walks with difficulty due to persistent pain in the hip. He already lost an earlier appointment for a unemployment. This time either was lucky.
“This time happens. If it is not for salaries, it is for bonds or for any other reason. Now I have to reprogram the consultation again, and that means More loss of time, more expenses and get up early, ”he laments.
To get early to the hospital, he had to leave home before 5:00, take the first micro and then another. Days before, to take out the card, he had to spend the night in the row.
Some patients have already had to reschedule their consultations for the fourth time. “It is a shame to come every week to reprogram, because one gets more sick. We ask to work, because they are to save lives. They are stopping, but they continue to charge their salary”A patient lamented.
Another person, who arrived from the lots of the lots, said he is harmed since the previous week. “They are twice reprogramming my card,” he complained.
Afflicted, a woman tried that her mother be attended by the nephrologist, because if she does not succeed in the planned deadlines, she must get a reference order again. “There are fed sick, like my mother, that need the specialist to see them ”, He said when he remains to wait until next week to resume attention, if the mobilization does not last.
There were also complaints about misinformation. Loading a folder with his documents and protected with a chin, a elderly person was waiting in the halls of San Juan de Dios, because he was getting up early to get a card with the cardiologist.
“Today (Monday) the remedies have ended, that’s why I want the consultation with the doctor, but they tell me that there is no attention and they sent me to triaje, but I know that they do not give a card, one stays without knowing what to do,” he lamented.
This man came from Porongo to schedule an appointment. “Every end of the month I have to be in control with the cardiologist, but now with all these strikes I do not know what we are doing. We are wrong and worried, because the diseases are treated with remedies and end us,” he said.
No more lives in pause!
Tired of the strikes, other patients, among renal, with lupus, with cancer and older adults, in addition to volunteers, they went out to protest to the main square through the constant strikes.
No more lives in pause! It was the cry of the patients, who ensure that strikes affect attention, postpone treatments and put their lives at risk.
Lihetzer Zenteno, representative of cancer patients, said they have monitored all protests and, from January 1 to Tuesday, are 30 days without attention in hospitals for different stoppages; Until Friday they will add 33. “The serious thing is that they do not get anything stop, they must understand that The strikes do not work and that the only harmed are patients. After all, they receive their salary the same, ”he says.
He adds that not only cards are lost, but they are also being lost, because there are patients who end up dying pending programming and reprogramming, some do not even start a treatment. “A story is more dramatic than another,” he says.
He explains that every time a patient loses a turn, he must start from scratch, and with the accumulated delay in the system, the wait becomes even longer.
“That person already waited 15 days for that file. Now you will have to wait for another month, Because there is a huge bottleneck, ”he says. Given this situation, they are making common strength to raise a bill to sanction health stoppages.
On the other hand, the departmental representative of the Ombudsman, Sheila Gómez, went to the Government and had contact with the leadership of health workers in search of bridges of solution. “Five days (without attention) seems to us a barbarity, because many people arrive from different municipalities or very remote areas and meets the doors closed “he said when they suspend specialized medical studies and care.
Government
A week ago, amid the protests for vaccination payment, the Departmental Secretary of Health, Marcelo Kramer, noted that the lack of liquidity affects the governorates.
“We made an offer to resolve the bonus payment, but it was rejected,” he said in explaining that the only solution to comply with health workers is to reach a reconciliation of accounts with the Ministry of Health, process that requires 30 to 45 days and the approval of the assembly Departmental Legislative, due to the change of financing source.
The secretary insisted that no governance of the country has managed to pay the bonus, since the resources of the HDI (direct tax for hydrocarbons), where this obligation is financed, were cut “alarmingly” by the central government. “Yeahlet’s pay, but we need a little time“, said.
The representative of the Departmental Medical College, Wilfredo Anzoátegui, points out that, to attend the hospital crisis, the bureaucracy that is generated by the tripartite competition must disappear. In addition, substantive needs must be met, such as hospital infrastructure, equipment and items.
