With the opening of the Nuclear Medicine service, the “Dr. Rafael Estévez” from Aguadulce becomes the first public medical facility in the interior of the country to offer this specialty.
This hospital, which has a 90% supply of medicines and supplies, promises to become a hospital “hub” for the central region of the country.
“With the visit of the general director (Dr. Enrique Lau Cortés) we are finalizing the details to increase the offer with the Nuclear Medicine service, which will be the only one in a public unit at the level of the interior of the republic”, said the medical director of the hospital, Dr. Bolívar Saldaña.
The general director made a two-day tour of Coclé to supervise the facilities and the projects that are being built, as well as the supply of medicines and supplies in the province.
Dr. Saldaña added that the Hospital “Dr. Rafael Estévez is a second level facility in the province with characteristics of third level of complexity and sixth level of care.
The facility provides a health response to 260,000 residents in Coclé, Veraguas and West Panama. In addition, it dispenses some 90,000 medications per month and performs more than 5,000 radiological studies per month, including 600 MRIs and 500 CATs.
Yanina González, head of the hospital’s Radiology Department, stressed that with the opening of Nuclear Medicine, the arrival of patients from the interior who travel to the capital to complete thyroid studies, bone scintillations, cardiac scans and other specialized examinations would be relieved.
González added that currently the Radiology service has the capacity to respond in computed tomography, magnetic resonance, conventional X-ray studies, mammograms and prostate biopsy, among others.
Regarding the level of supply of medicines, Maribel Camargo, head of the Medicines Warehouse, said that there is a 90% supply, with some 70 purchase orders in process and others pending delivery.
