Health Minister Deploys Measures to Improve Services

Dr. Bautista Rojas Gómez, Minister of Public Health and Social Assistance (SESPAS) affirmed on Thursday that quality health service is an issue of utmost importance to the government and that it will not skimp on resources in order to reach that objective.

The Minister surprised the patients, hospital staff and administrators when he showed up at 5:58 in the morning at the Cabral y Baez Hospital and immediately began a tour of the hospital to check that the hygiene levels were up to code…

He said the first step authorities are taking is to encourage the empowerment all those involved in this sector and to emphasize the importance of providing quality health care to the people, satisfying an inalienable right, according to the President´s Office of Information, Press and Publicity. 

Dr. Rojas Gómez made this announcement at the José María Cabral y Báez Regional Hospital in Santiago where he recently set up an office where he´ll be drawing up plans of action and establishing public policies that will implement SESPAS´s objectives in the short, medium and long term as the ministry sets out to improve the quality of health care in the Northern Region and the rest of the country.

The Minister surprised the patients, hospital staff and administrators when he showed up at 5:58 in the morning at the Cabral y Baez Hospital and immediately began a tour of the hospital to check that the hygiene levels were up to code.

As he walked around the hospital he spoke with patients, not only asking them how they felt, what they were suffering from but also how the service was and how they´re being treated by the doctors and staff.

At 7:00 a.m., accompanied by the hospital director, Dr. Nelson Báez Noyer, Health Minister Bautista Rojas oversaw the “physicians´ changing of the guard,” during which time members of the hospital´s 22 medical residencies gave their reports on what had occurred during their 24-hour work shift. 

After listening to the reports, Dr. Bautista Rojas joined one of the physicians´ rounds to observe something that had come to his attention: a 17-year-old girl who was having her second baby. Dr. Bautista Rojas wanted to know why the hospital´s Advice Center had not been involved in helping the teenager.

Later he participated in a Video Conference on a case of maternal mortality that occurred in the Alatgracia Maternity Hospital after the patient was referred there, in a delicate state, from San Cristóbal´s Juan Pablo Pina Hospital. Through the video conference, the health experts contributed important ideas on how to favorably resolve these types of situations in the future and avoid the loss of human life. 

Present at the conference were deputy ministers Nancy Betances from the Northern Region; Nelson Rodríguez Monegro from the Health Collective; Rosa María Suárez in charge of Personal Attention; Sergio Sarita Valdez of Forensic Pathology and María Villa, Deputy Minister in charge of Quality.