QCOSTARICA – Waiting for treatment is jeopardizing the lives of 830 patients with heart disease, some waiting up to six years for surgery at the Hospital Mexico.
According to the head of Cardiology at the Mexico, Dr. Sofia Bogantes, 141 patients on the waiting list have died in the last 18 months from the lack of care and the lack of at least three cardiologists.
“This is not a problem of yesterday; the negligence of the hospital director has been ongoing since 2009 and he is looking distort reality and minimize deaths,” she said.
Bogantes asserts that patients could have been saved if they had received appropriate care.
“I checked death certificates and they died from lack of attention … the director was failing at math,” Bogantes told La Nacion.
Hospital Mexico medical director, Douglas Montero, assures that the waiting list is not of 830, but of 512 patients and in the last four years the hospital has been working on mitigating the wait time.
Montero accuses Bogantes of distorting reality, putting the hospital in a bad light without regard to the investment efforts that have been made. “This is an action by the doctor (Bogantes) against me,” said Montero.
Dr. Bogantes has sought out the support of Legislator Mario Redondo, of the Alianza Demócrata Cristiana party, who on Wednesday called for the dismissal of the director,
In addition, legislators agreed on Wednesday to create a commission to investigate the medical director and especially the Cardiology department and the use of the operating rooms.
For their part, the medical director of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), Maria Eugenia Villalta, announced their own investigation into the matter,
In Costa Rica, heart disease is the leading cause of death since 1970, and in more than 40 years, the numbers have not dropped. The CCSS invests annually ¢117 billion colones in the care of cardiovascular diseases.
In 2014 alone there were 5,626 deaths from heart disease and 8,242 hospitalizations.
Source: Nacion.com; Teletica.com
