This Tuesday morning, President Laurentino Cortizo toured the construction of the new Dr. José Renán Esquivel Children’s Hospital, which will be located on the grounds of the former United States Embassy, Avenida Balboa.
During the visit, the director of Health Infrastructure, Carlos Candanedo, revealed that the construction of the hospital registers 1.5% progress. “This tour is to validate and demonstrate what we are already carrying out day by day through the assurance inspection by the Ministry of Health,” he said.
He stated that the initial stage of the project, which is piloting, is 68% complete, important to be able to continue with other activities.
He explained that after this phase, it is expected to continue with the closure of the lower seismic route, which would allow the excavation to be carried out, among others.
For his part, the director of the Children’s Hospital, Paul Gallardo, said that the activation and transition plan must be done two years before the delivery of the hospital.
“The Children’s Hospital is a tertiary care hospital where the intensive care units cannot be moved from one day to the next, and this is a process that can take us two years before or six months later for this transfer to be as successful as possible,” he remarked.
President Cortizo told the construction company in charge of the building that what interests him is progress in this project. “I demand that you speed up the project,” she said.
“They have to put speed on it, they have no other choice; I have already spoken very clearly to the contractors and they have to move forward, it is an extremely important project. This has been going from one side to the other for nine years, we want to continue advancing and this is a very nice,” he said.
The Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, also participated in the tour and declared: “It is up to the Ministry of Health to strengthen, remember and demand that the company speed it up in order to cut dates.”
He reiterated that Panamanians have been starting this project for more than nine years, which has had countless legal problems. “What we aspire to is that the Panamanian population has its structure as soon as possible and that the child population has one of the best hospitals in the region with more than 700 beds,” she said.
The preliminary phase includes the removal of land, demolition of structures, streets and sidewalks to later build the hospital center. The budget contemplated for this work is approximately 443 million 899 thousand 482 dollars and it is estimated that it will be completed in four years.
In the first instance, the construction of a pediatric hospital has been established, although expansion to a maternal and child hospital is planned.
Gallardo stressed that “it will be a hospital with state-of-the-art technology, safety for patients and collaborators, and a design to reduce infections associated with health care.”
The services will be divided into two areas. On the horizontal are the intensive care, operating and rheumatology rooms, while the vertical will be the pediatric rooms
It will have an estimated 21 floors, 276 hospitalization beds, a parking tower and garden restructuring.
