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Hospital Holy-Cross Crosses an
The situation has become complicated at
With reduced medical personnel, demobilized financial partners and increased medical fees, this hospital complex of the Episcopal Church of Haiti is losing its calling.
Father Jean Berthol Phanord, Administrator General, has not managed to maintain normal operation of the hospital, according to personnel of the institution.
A disagreement with the Bishop of the Diocese of Haiti, Mgr Jean Zachée Duracin, was behind the firing of Dr. Lafontant, very prejudicial for the institution which had a certain standard. Several employees considered to be close to the old direction were reinstated, underlined our sources.
Mi-figue, mi-raisin
Even the entrance of the hospital testifies to its slow down. A market and a station of motor cycles divides the sidewalk of the hospital.
Maintenance of the medical programs, true vocation of the hospital, is today only one business of frontage. Several financial partners left after the revocation of Jacques Guy Lafontant, while those who remain are not regular in the releasing of funds.
Since January 2006, an employee of the hospital says, several financing organizations float between engagement and abandonment, a situation which envelopes the institution in total distress.
About fifty employees have been laid off since the arrival of Father Jean Berthol as administrator general of HSC. Between August and September, 44 people of which 22 are nurses, were removed from duty without continuation nor pay, a victim informed.
Thanked and Reinstated
Five contract personnel who were fired last June were reinstated. Some of them, belonging to the medical personnel, work daily, others were obliged to work elsewhere while keeping their status as employees of the hospital, awaiting retroactive pay covering several months.
Moreover, HSC has shown serious delay of payment. According to our sources, the employees depending on IICO, have not received their wages since January. Others have been waiting for more than three months, a situation which becomes complicated day by day.
A circular posted in the Administrative Section of the hospital mentions the cancellation of reimbursement of expenses or extras because of financial difficulties.
Increase in fees out-raged patients and complicates life so that patients hardly attend the hospital any longer because of the difficult economic situation of the country.
Closings down…
“Everyone went to the hospital. People came from all corners of the country and even our compatriots of the Diaspora were there to be admitted to ensure themselves of the presence of their relatives who could not be by their bedside elsewhere”, recalls a former employee of this hospital complex, asking for anonymity.
Today, the situation changes. Léogânais see themselves obliged to move towards other hospital complexes offering better quality care and at better prices, such as Cange in the Department of the Center, Bonne Fine in the South and other centers in
The pharmacy of the hospital has almost completely exhausted its stock. The pharmacist, not being authorized to speak in the name of the institution, chose to keep quiet about the lack of supplies which characterizes this part of the hospital, and refused even viewing the interior of the pharmacy.
The operation of Hospital Holy-Cross of Léogâne, inaugurated in 1968, remains a true enigma today. No person in charge was available to provide information relating to the predicament of the institution.
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