NEWS FROM CALI

Protest about lack of hospital resources, dispersed by gas in front of the hospital.

See:
http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/cali/ARTICULO-WEB-NEW_NOTA_INTERIOR-10038170.html


56 year old hospital being run down – ready for privatisation?

Hospital administration accused of corruption and bleeding hospital funds dry, December 2010

El Hospital Universitario del Valle is in financial difficulties, cannot supply medicines and other equipment, is not paying staff on time or at all, and may be heading for closure. It is said that Lina Morena, the wife of ex-president Uribe, is interested in buying it. This is very shocking news, as the HUV is a huge, public and well-respected teaching hospital, with links to the public university, the Universidad del Valle, close by.

There will be no alternatives in the whole region for patients or students, in medicine and related professions like physiotherapy. Staff at the hospital, the majority of whom are women, are likely to lose their jobs.

On 16 February 2011, HUV workers held another demonstration to protest the lack of money to run the hospital.

Regarding the confrontation that developed in the street in front of the hospital, Dr Laureano Quintero questioned the use of the police, given that two of those affected were patients, and six belonged to the hospital staff. A list of wounded is given below.

Jazmín Gamboa, secretaria de consulta externa: en evaluación de cirugía por trauma facial.

Paola Villarreal, auxiliar de oficina: trauma en pierna derecha.

Katerine Muñoz, auxiliar de oficina: herida en tórax.

Jersaín Labrado, vigilante: herida en tórax.

José Luis Rodríguez, transeúnte: trauma en abdomen.

Gustavo de la Cruz, transeúnte: trauma en pierna izquierda.

Carmen Albán, auxiliar de enfermería: trauma en pierna izquierda.

Deyanira Chagüendo, auxiliar de servicios generales: contusión en el hueso sacro.

Aceneth Escobar, auxiliar de esterilización: trauma en seno derecho.

Luis Eduardo Ibarra, mensajero y dirigente sindical: trauma en tórax.

Women's organisations, through the Red Mucem network, are closely involved in resisting the closure, alongside two unions, SINSPUBLIC and SINTRAHOSPICLINICAS. However, maybe as a warning, two 13 to 14 year-old girls, one the daughter of a woman activist, 'disappeared', and were found after a search by activists on the outskirts of the town. They had been raped.

Poor people will be disproportionately affected by the running down, closure or privatisation of their public hospital, as will black people and also women, all the majority users of the public hospital facilities.

Police snatch hospital worker, July 2011

According to the medical director of the hospital, Laureano Quintero, tear gas was used, scaring patients and visitors in the early hours of the morning. Children and adults had to be evacuated from the emergency ward. The protest left five people wounded.

The Mayor of Cali, Jorge Iván Ospina, in the face of continuous demonstrations by the hospital workers, has requested the setting up of a truth commission in order to clarify what was going on within the hospital.

More news to follow later.....