President Nicolás Maduro said the center will function as a special intermediate hospital, and includes an intensive care unit with trauma services, mobile X-ray equipment, a laboratory, a pharmacy, and a break room for medical and nursing staff, among other areas.

The role played by the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) and the People’s Power Ministry of Internal Relations, Justice and Peace was decisive in completing the transformation of the site and adjacent areas, to install the hospital.

Patients are being treated by the 10th Brigade of the Ernesto Che Guevara contingent, composed of 88 Cuban health collaborators.

During an inaugural ceremony to welcome the collective, assembled by the Cuban Medical Mission in Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez thanked Cuba for its solidarity and praised “the immense love you have for the peoples of the world, crossing borders to give health and life.

(Source: Granma)

The Miguel Enríquez Hospital, known to most as the La Benéfica, is situated in the Havana municipality of 10 de Octubre and was inaugurated in 1983 as a mutualist clinic belonging to the Gallegos Society (immigrants from Galicia). At that time the institution offered medical, surgical, and dental services.

After the triumph of the Revolution it became a clinical-surgical hospital run by the people, for the people, and at the end of 1974 was renamed after Chilean doctor and political leader Miguel Enríquez Espinosa (1944-1974, who died fighting against the bloody military dictatorship in Chile).
Today, the institution has 425 beds, admits an average of 11,000 patients, offers 80,000 consultations across 34 specialties, and treats some 95,000 emergency cases, every year.
The hospital was first expanded during the 1980s. On December 31, 1988 Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz inaugurated a new eight-story building adjacent to the main site, with a capacity of 265 beds; as well as another newly renovated facility in the surgical department with 12 operating theaters, a burn unit, and diagnostics center.

Meanwhile, in efforts to implement the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and Revolution approved during the Communist Party of Cuba’s Seventh Congress in 2011, healthcare facilities throughout the country are currently being renovated and repaired as part of a nationwide transformation process being carried out across the entire sector.

Three new 26-bed wards have been opened at the Miguel Enrique Hospital; one in the Surgery department, the second in Geriatrics, and a third in Internal Medicine – all of which had been closed since 2003. These works have contributed to increasing the hospital’s efficiency, guaranteeing surgical procedures, and improving emergency services.

This first phase also saw repair and maintenance works to the staff cafeteria, and emergency department, as well as a bloc which includes 100 beds, transitional and intensive care units, clinical laboratory, X-ray services, and two surgical patient preparation areas, both with 24 beds.

Meanwhile, 10 new operating theaters were inaugurated in January 2017, all equipped with modern technology for minimal access, neurological, ophthalmological and oncological procedures; while clinical and non-clinical fittings and furnishing were replaced for increased comfort in waiting and consultation areas.

At present, the laundry room, sterilization unit, and two other hospital wards are undergoing maintenance.

According to staff, the severe, progressing, and mild burns units, as well as another operating theater, teaching areas, doctors on-call rooms, and a storage/dining facility, should be completed by July 26, National Rebellion Day, an historic date for Cubans when, in 1953, Fidel and a group of revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Garrison in Santiago de Cuba.

The hospital has also received 93 new medical devices, including two chemistry analyzers, two gasometers, Rx remote controls, a C-Arm X-ray System, six artificial kidneys, state-of-the-art neurosurgery microscopes, and anesthesia and MRI machines.

In 2013 the center had a total of 35 computers with out-dated software and no intranet. Now all have intranet access, with servers for authorized users, browsing and Internet services, as well as the GALEN computerized medical records system.

Similar things are happening at the Salvador Allende clinical-surgical teaching Hospital, located in the Havana municipality of Cerro, and opened in 1897 as a health facility under the name “La Covadonga,” belonging to the mutualist society of Asturian immigrants.

This institution, set on grounds covering an expanse of 136,000 square meters, offers services in 30 specialties, is composed of 40 buildings divided into pavilions, and has 24 wards and 432 beds, which received 12,788 patients in 2016.

Two wards are set to receive an additional 20 beds, as well as undergo repairs, which should be completed this year. Meanwhile, filter and hydro-pressure machines have been installed to supply high-pressure soft water to washing machines, the main sterilization unit, and boilers. Repairs have also been carried out to the incineration room, where equipment there, along with the Exciplex laser, has undergone maintenance works.

Meanwhile, repairs to the clinical and microbiology laboratories, as well as the building which houses outpatient consultation facilities, are set to be completed by December.

Maintenance work has also been carried out in the surgical unit, three admissions wards, the gastroenterology and pathological anatomy departments, the center for brain conditions, and emergency room.

Similar projects are also being undertaken in areas dedicated to nuclear medicine, sterilization, teaching rooms, the kitchen, and various admissions wards.

These two well known, free, public hospitals are clear proof that the investment process is fulfilling its objectives by continuing to improve health indicators, increase the quality of services and patient satisfaction, and making the island’s healthcare system more efficient and sustainable, which together contribute to guaranteeing the social development of the country.

(Granma)

In turn, efforts are ongoing to improve the quality of medical care, teaching, and research.

Speaking to Granma International, Dr. Antonio Raunel Hernández Rodríguez, director of the hospital, explained the results of the repair works completed thus far, the new services provided by the center, and the updating of teaching processes.

“What has been done is very important from a constructive point of view. The wards, operating rooms, emergency and service areas have been repaired,” Dr. Hernández states.

The renovation and refurbishment works also include a fully equipped rest area for doctors on call. Comfortable rooms, hot and cold water, air conditioning, and improved food services mean the hospital’s doctors enjoy better conditions during their long working hours.

Although progress has been made, one ward is still being repaired, and external consultation areas and the rehabilitation area are undergoing repair works.

THE SERVICE IN GREATEST DEMAND

The Fructuoso Rodríguez Hospital is located in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución municipality, with the largest aging population in the country.

Many patients arrive at the health center with fractured hips, not only from this municipality but also from others. Today, this is the service in greatest demand.

“Last year the hospital assumed 42% of hip fracture surgeries in the capital and 19% of the country’s total. In the first quarter of this year 2017, 235 fractures have been operated, and 92% of these within 24 hours,” explains Antonio Hernández.

Orthogeriatrics requires, in most cases, special care, professional and technical know-how, in line with the patient’s clinical history.

“The elderly people we receive, in addition to the hip complaint, have medical conditions linked to their age relating to the heart, lungs, kidneys, among others, which complicate treatment and surgery,” Hernández explains.

OTHER SERVICES

The hospital provides ten other medical services addressing different anatomical regions of the human body, including upper and lower limbs. Endoprosthetic and spinal surgery is performed, both on adults and children.

Among related specialties are rehabilitation services, particularly effective in the treatment of orthopedic conditions. The hospital also has a clinical laboratory, specialized in microbiology, and complementary studies for inpatients and outpatients.

Other facilities include a blood bank and a psychology department, which helps support patients facing traumatic operations and injuries, Hernández Rodríguez explains.

Imaging equipment, including CT and digital X-ray machines, have also been installed. The latter has represented savings for the hospital, in terms of x-ray film. Dr. Hernández adds that, in the coming months, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging equipment will be incorporated.

The Havana Hospital also treats patients from different parts of the world, mainly Venezuelans, as part of the Cuba-Venezuela Health Program, although patients from Mexico, Argentina, and other Latin American countries have also benefited from its services.

TEACHING WORK

In addition to specializing in Orthopedics, the hospital stands out as a teaching center. At the moment, there are 37 residents, of whom seven are of other nationalities (Venezuelan, Colombian, Mexican and Chinese), whose studies in Cuba are either self-financed or funded through governmental agreements.

“We have a pyramid of teaching staff, with associate professors, teaching assistants, and instructors, as well as a consulting professor. They are doctors of different specialties related to orthopedics and traumatology,” the hospital director notes.

Orthopedics is studied for a period of four years. The learning process, states Antonio Hernández, is based on spiraled practice, to gradually increase residents’ surgical operations and the clinical complexities treated.

An end of year examination is conducted, and at the end of the degree course students take a pre-state and a state exam.

FOR QUALITY HEALTH CARE

Dr. Antonio Hernández Rodríguez affirms that there is no good care without good teaching, and vice versa. This link, he adds, is very important to ensure the quality of the health care provided.

“When teaching is linked to research, the student or resident of the specialty must also prove their knowledge from the point of view of investigation,” explains Dr. Hernández.

To graduate, students present a thesis related to the specialty, but based on the work of the institution. Thus, medical care is also evaluated and the work contributes to hospital development to provide better care to patients.

Remodeling and repair works at the hospital began about five years ago. The cost has surpassed 12 million pesos, demonstrating the commitment of the Cuban state and the Ministry of Public Health to preserve the comfort of the institution, and guarantee conditions for its workers, as well as quality medical care for everyone who requires it.

(Granma)