Having to wait years for an appointment in La Anexion Hospital in Nicoya makes many patients uneasy, fearing that when their turn finally comes, it might be too late to attack the disease.
Such is the case for Marcos Matarrita, a Nosara resident who was concerned about discomfort in one of his testicles and, suspecting that it might be cancer, decided to go to the community Ebais clinic.
There they referred him to La Anexion Hospital to get an x-ray, but the appointment date is not until 2017, two years later.
Facing this situation and the imminent health risk, Matarrita decided to seek treatment at a private clinic in Nicoya where, to his relief, he was told that he has a condition called varicocele, which is a swelling of the veins in the scrotum and does not pose a risk of cancer.
When consulted by The Voice, Dr. Anner Angulo, director of La Anexion Hospital, said that “if the attending physician does not consider it an emergency, the appointment will be scheduled for a few years later.” He also reported that the most saturated services are urology and ophthalmology.
Angulo said that, in this case, the treatment to follow is an outpatient surgery to correct the discomfort. However, he indicated that this type of operation is not a priority for the institution.
“We have other types of operations as priorities to treat more serious illnesses such as cancer, for which we have a long waiting list,” Angulo indicated.
In addition to this condition, Matarrita needs to get some x-rays due to a discomfort that he feels in the kidneys. The date scheduled is in August of 2016 in the same hospital.
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