The completion date of the City of Health continues to be December 16, 2023, but the director of the Social Security Fund, Enrique Lau announced that the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Institute will be inaugurated on July 12, 2022, this as part of the first phase of this work.
Cortés highlighted the importance of this delivery as it ensures that more than 100 patients who are currently on waiting lists at the Arnulfo Arias Madrid Hospital Complex will be able to operate, in addition to the development of the National Program for the Correction of Congenital Cardiac Malformations in Panamanian children.
“Each year 300 children are born in our country with congenital heart defects and here we are going to be able to treat them with respect and affection and repair those injuries,” he said, stating that the industrial building where the entire air conditioning system is located will also be delivered, oxygen, wastewater management, drinking water, electricity, among others.
He said that this “brain!, which will keep all this work running, was scheduled to be delivered by September of this year, but in coordination with the contractor they agreed that the delivery would be made in parallel with the Cardiovascular Institute.
“We are going to anticipate the compliance schedule, this is going to allow areas that were scheduled to be inaugurated in September of this year, to be made available for July,” he assured and revealed that the blood bank and the blood products center will also be delivered in July.
He added that to meet the demand that this Center will have, two of the best cardiovascular surgeons and a support team are being sent to be trained in the best heart transplant centers in the world.
The President of the Republic Laurentino Cortizo said that the City of Health is a work that should never have been paralyzed, because if it had been available during the health crisis generated by the pandemic, Panama would have had 200 intensive care units and 300 areas for mechanic ventilation.
“We are talking about 500 alternatives that we would have had to face Covid,” he specified, assuring that this work will be completed in this administration.
