QCOSTARICA – While thousands every day brave the chilly morning air making line at clinics, called Ebais, around the country and waiting months or years to get an appointment with a specialist or fight to stay alive long enough to get a gastroscopy, for example, at a CCSS medical centre, President Luis Guillermo Solis decided to go to a private clinic to get his “annual check up”.
The information of his visiting the private medical centre comes from detailed information of the President’s weekly agenda and confirmed by Stephanie Gonzalez, press officer at Casa Presidencial (government house).
Gonzalez confirmed that the President had his medical exam at Clinica Biblica.
For now Casa Presidencial has kept quiet on why the President would visit a private medical centre and not one state run, as has other former presidents, like Abel Pacheco (2002-2006), who would be checked by doctors at the hospital Calderon Guardia.
Given the silence by Casa Presidencial, namely by the Ministro de la Communicacion (Communications Minister), Mauricio Herrera, many have begun to ask the question, why does the country’s first citizen turn to private medicine and not the CCSS? And is it not important for the President to get a first hand experience of what every Costa Rican lives through daily?
Does not the President know of the serious problems at the CCSS, namely the waiting list that has some 500,000 people waiting on an operation, medical test or appointment.
On that waiting list are 26,000 waiting for gastroscopy and 12,000 for an urgent operation; more than 110,000 waiting to see a dermatologist, orthopedist or ophthalmologist, among other specialists.
The reality that some see their condition worsen while waiting, some even die, before they get to their appointment.
The President, as any other citizen, has the right to choose a state run facility or a private centre where they can get quick attention. Some have this option, many not.
What is your opinion?
Source: Diario Extra
One less person on the waiting list for an appointment…and he is only doing what many ‘Ticos’ and ex-pats alike choose to do.
LMAO…the picture of the dog pooping right above the Pres. and the story about him going to a private clinic. Nice.
Certainly wasn’t intentional.
Just wondering because the dog and the Pres. seem to have the same facial expressions. Still LOL
Yes, the President doesn’t look pleased about being discovered at Clinica Biblica, waiting for his annual medical check-up, probably for all the political implications that Rico mentions in the article.
There is no contest between the medical service offered at a private clinic, like Clinica Biblica, and a CAJA Clinic. The CAJA Hospital San Juan de Dios has not been nicknamed “Hospital San Juan Adios” for nothing. I wouldn’t blame the President for doing his annual medical a Clinica Biblica. After all, who has a better insight into where the best medical services in the Country can be found than the President?
I think elected representatives should have the same care as the populace, to avoid the disconnection that plagues the US of A & many other countries. Otherwise these powerful officials have no idea what the people who vote them in have to put up with. I have an appointment on tuesday that I’ve waited over 2.5 years for. It was supposed to be 16 days ago, but there was no doctor & I was rescheduled…