The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) decided to extend their intervention at the Hospital de la Anexión in Nicoya, which had lasted one year as of December 20. Multiple problems obligated them to employ this mechanism.
The CCSS’s medical manager, Dr. Maria Eugenia Villalta, explained to The Voice of Guanacaste that the process has gone well but that it merits more time to resolve the crisis faced by the hospital. “The board of directors evaluated the continuation, but it could very well be finished before that time, depending on indicators,” she said.
She added that, “There are still medical specialties that have a considerable waiting list, and because of that more than anything the period has been extended; we’re hoping to correct everything very soon.”
For his part, the director of the Hospital de la Anexión, Dr. Jorge Fonseca Renault, explained that at this point he is very interested in continuing to oversee the intervention since there are a lot of improvement projects in process and others that haven’t been started that will be involved with the process.
“We’ll be correcting the physical plant and productivity; we have waiting lists, but we’ve reduced the times of others with campaigns such as the one for cataract surgery. There are things that, with the resources we have, are impossible to achieve on time. For example, in surgery and urology we work half time, though in January a new anesthesiologist will arrive,” explained Fonseca.
The head of the hospital said that in January there will be an important expansion of the physical plant and that several pieces of medical equipment will come with it: “We’ll have an anti-seismic reinforcement, the modernization of electromechanical systems, anti-fire systems and others.”
Several departments will also be expanded, including pediatrics (taking advantage of resources from the Telethon, which collected 703,815,245 colones or about $1.4 million this year, from which a still-unknown amount will be allocated to Nicoya), gynecology, outpatient services, the clinical laboratory, x-rays, physical therapy, one operating room will be added (there are currently four), nutrition, legal, laundry, and the number of examination rooms.
Fonseca added that there are two projects coming to the hospital– first this reinforcement and in December of 2014, the promised construction of the Medical Tower should begin after demolishing Surgery and Medicine. Work is scheduled to be completed between July and December of 2016.
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