Punta Cana it is still in the category of municipal district, but the figures generated by that demarcation are praiseworthy for any province: in 2021 it received 50% of the 4.9 million tourists who entered the country and stayed in the more than 42,000 hotel rooms.
However, those digits are only green in tourism. In other respects, such as public health, Veron-Punta Cana -official name of the municipal district belonging to Higüey- shares the same precariousness that characterizes most of these types of communities.
Last Thursday, a aaccident left four dead when a bus overturned on the Bulevar Turístico del Este when turning towards the Domingo Maíz intersection. The injured (all tourists) received care at private health centers, some of which do not accept basic insurance, according to data from residents.
And it is that, despite its constant growth, this tourist enclave still does not have a second level public hospital. It only has three UNAP (Primary Care Unit); one in Verón, another in Bávaro and the third in La Ceiba, which is disabled, since it was flooded by Hurricane Fiona, according to the municipal director, Ramón Ramírez (Manolito).
According to Ramírez, due to its geographical distribution, Verón-Punta Cana needs not just one, but several public health centers, which must be surveyed at specific points, such as one in Bávaro and another in La Ceiba. In this small community, he said that the municipal board delivered a UNAP, but the authorities still do not enable it to provide services.
In the 2010 census, the district had a population of 54,128 inhabitants, but in 2020 statements, Ramírez revealed that in the last 10 years, the exodus has increased and the figure is around 150,000 inhabitants, attracted by a tourism industry that generates more than $7 billion a year. The complete demarcation has 475 square kilometers and includes the communities of Verón, Bávaro, Uvero Alto, La Ceiba, Macao, Cabeza de Toro, Punta Cana and Cap Capa.
La Ceiba is between 45 minutes and an hour from Verón, and Bávaro, “a community that you know is growing too much” is 30 minutes away, “Manolito” details.
ambulances are missing
Another deficit he cites is that of ambulances: there are only four from the National Emergency System 9-1-1 and he states that three more are needed to place them in strategic places to provide immediate care in case of accidentsLike the one that happened last week.
Regarding the event, Ramírez acknowledges that there was a failure with the state ambulances: the first to arrive were from Grupo Puntacana and several from Clinic Assist, and 45 minutes later those from the 9-1-1 System arrived, according to what he said.
A hospital that advances at a snail’s pace
In 2019, given the demands of the community, the then President Daniel Medina gave the green light to build a second level health center, which currently stands on a 3,145 square meter plot of land.
The tender OISOE-LPN-001-2019 of the suppressed Supervisory Office of State Works (Oisoe) details the novelties: two operating rooms, a delivery room, a pharmacy, an emergency area with a triage area, a waiting room, a pediatric observation room and five consulting rooms.
In addition, it will have 32 beds distributed in 14 roomsICU areas and X-ray and sonography images, a laboratory, a morgue, a kitchen, a laundry, a gas booth, a tuberculosis area, one for HIV patients and an administrative area.
In January 2020, the date of delivery It would be in July of that same year, as indicated at that time by Francisco Pagán, director of the Oisoe.
In the accountability speech last February, Abinader mentioned that the hospital would be ready this year, however, in the last visit he made to follow up on the restoration plan for Hurricane Fiona, the president indicated that the date would be the first quarter of 2023.
Poueriet Gil: How is it possible?
Altagracia Poueriet Gilcommunity leader and president of one of the neighborhood associations, expresses that for the injured tourists in the private centers there was no difficulty, but maintains that when it comes to Dominicans, who barely have basic insurance, the situation is different: if they do not have good insurance you must travel between 45 minutes and an hour to Higüey, where the provincial hospital is.
“How is it possible that an international tourist destination does not have a hospital?” wonders Poueriet Gil, and surely points out that if the center had been enabled, more lives would have been saved, since the event occurred a few meters from where the work stands.
He attributes the fact that the area does not have a hospital to a lack of empowered leadership. “I see that millions of dollars are being invested in other cities, so why isn’t this hospital here finished?” He maintains that, in addition to a normal hospital, a trauma center is needed to assist the large number of accident victims in the area.
