When Costa Rica’s newest hospital opened its doors in San Rafael de Alajuela 18 months ago, area residents—some half a million to be served by the facility—were euphoric. Today, the hospital is barely running, reports the daily newspaper La Nacion.
Of the 700 new posts for medical personnel, only 153 have been filled by the Social Security administration (Caja), the giant government agency that runs public hospitals. Those 153 are running at full speed to tend the patients.
Three ultramodern operating rooms cannot be used simultaneously because of the personnel scarcity—especially anathesiologists. Some 400 patients are home awaiting urinology operations and 300 women need gynolocogy surgery. The whole list numbers a staggering 7,000 pending operations and the wait for 1,600 of those is up to 30 months.
Meanwhile, a large portion of recent medical school graduates languish without work.
Of 310 beds, only 226 are in use and that is only seven more than the old, ramshackle hospital the new facility replaced in October, 2004, reports La Nacion. The rest have not even shed their protective plastic covers from the factory and nurses’ desks on the third floor sit gathering dust.
Consulted by the newspaper, a spokesperson for the Caja assure that a “new strategy” to cure the problem was being developed but hospital director Luis Diego Alfaro countered that the strategy included only longer hours for the already overworked staff.
The hospital has been star-crossed from the beginning, according to the report. In August, 2000, seven construction firms competed for the construction contract with a Spanish company getting the nod in December of that year, but it was not until May, 2001, that the $34 million contract was signed after legal appearls by the other companies. But by September of that year, it was found that the ground under the site was a boggy clay that needed another $2 million preparation to assure safe construction. In 2005, the Caja discovered serious flaws in the work—doors badly designed, medical equipment that did not work and some electrical connections unuseable—but too late to get them repaired under the warrantee.