Hospital Escuela crisis

Those who have visited with us and been to Hospital Escuela already know that there are areas in which the hospital could improve.

Recently the president acted to move the hospital from being administered by the secretary of health to the rector of the UNAH (the Honduran public university system) Why? Well, it is a teaching hospital after all...and those being taught (and doing most of the doctoral-type work) are doctoral students from said university. So there you go.

Anyhoo...today it was announced today in the news that the hospital is in a state of emergency.

 

This...is not exactly news.

What is really news (and post worthy in my opinion...your opinion may vary) is that there was a report from the UNAH along with the state of emergency, detailing the problems found.

If you read Spanish and are curious...have a look for yourself: http://www.elheraldo.hn/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/7d8741feea555f2e36d883bf8e1b94ae.pdf

If you don’t, and don’t need all the details, let me just list the top ten as it were:

1. In the first six months of the year, the total number of patients seen in HE was 244,559

2. Over half of those were external consults (they did not stay overnight in a bed) meaning a rough average number of people there overnight every night of 638

3. 64.8% of funds spent for HE was on permanent personnel expenses

4. Current state of the warehouse at HE shows only 35 different products...of the 428 that should be there to attend to demand and that 162 medicines that are needed were never even purchased (93 were not programmed for purchase by HE and 69 were not obtained by the bidding/buying process)

5. Of those 35 that are there...I did not see anything you would commonly see in our pharmacy (meaning...they are missing the basics) and the report says that with these medicines those that are not being covered are renal insufficiency patients, patients with cancer, hypertensives complicated diabetics, those in intensive care, and others.

6. Amazingly in terms of surgical need...the report states that 99% of what is needed in inventory is not there.

7. So what is there? Some syringes, disposable needles, and medical grade paper mostly.

8. So wait...that means, no gloves, sutures, catheters, gauze, cotton, masks, and more? So says the report.

9. Not surprisingly, how the supplies are purchased is in much question in the report and detailed...not everything is being bought via public bids being submitted, and signed contracts are not being found (I read this as...backroom deals are being made.)

10. And pardon my editorial duh, but...seeing the prices being paid, already they can see that some items are being overpaid by as much as 400% (most 100% and up) in what they have researched to this point, and they are looking to find ways that they can close out the year with what will be needed to provide adequate coverage.

Bonus fact: of the personnel in HE the breakdown is as follows: Administrative 36%, Auxiliary nurses 29%, Technicians 12%, Doctors 14%, and nurses 9% The report notes that this shows a fundamental distortion of what should be the breakdown in employees.