Q COSTA RICA — For three days, Johanna Fernández’s 71-year-old mother had to wait in a wheelchair despite having a broken arm and an infection called diverticulitis, for care at Calderón Guardia Hospital,
After those three days of waiting, the hospital finally assigned the patient a bed.
Fernández denounced unjustified delays in performing urine tests and administering essential treatments. She stated, for example, that the prescription for antibiotics arrived almost at midnight, after several hours of waiting.
She also claimed that the staff did not provide her mother with her blood pressure medication and that doctors and nurses passed the buck, arguing that the patient “wasn’t admitted.”
The complainant also stated that she received arrogant responses and annoyed gestures from the staff when she requested information about the mother’s (patient) condition. She also indicated that they were not allowed to accompany the elderly woman, which increased the family’s distress.
“I know perfectly well that there are excellent professionals within the CCSS (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social) and that many work under difficult conditions and with an enormous workload. But that cannot be an excuse to normalize indifference, arrogance, misinformation, and the abandonment of patients,” she wrote on social media.
Crhoy.com reported that the Calderón Guardia Hospital attributed the situation to the high demand for services in the hospital’s Emergency Department.
The medical center explained that the service’s overcrowding causes longer wait times and requires some patients to remain under observation until a bed becomes available.
Furthermore, the institution noted that the high demand for hospital services affects the entire healthcare system, and therefore asked for the public’s understanding and solidarity.
Fernández reported that, after making the complaint public on social media, her mother’s situation was quickly resolved. She explained that her mother was transferred to the General Surgery department, where she was assigned a bed and began receiving appropriate care.
However, she insisted that her complaint goes beyond her mother’s case and seeks to highlight a structural problem within the public hospital system. She questioned the public healthcare system’s capacity to respond to a potential national emergency, such as a natural disaster or a mass casualty incident, if services already experience high levels of overcrowding under normal circumstances.
“Now that my mother is better, I can’t simply remain silent. Because this complaint was never just about her. My mother got a bed, but many other sick patients were left waiting for hours and days in wheelchairs. People in pain, fear, and anguish who also deserve to be treated with dignity,” she wrote on social media.
Hospital maintains that it prioritizes the most urgent cases
The Calderón Guardia Hospital stated to Crhoy.com that, due to the high demand, the medical and nursing staff work constantly to attend to those at greatest risk.
It also indicated that, out of respect for the patient’s privacy and confidentiality rules, it could not publicly discuss the clinical details of the case. However, it encouraged the family to use official channels to discuss their specific situation and receive the appropriate response.