Team Reports
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Hospitals in HondurasHilda Reinauer-Stark – Burlington, ON
With the help of the local Rotary Ladies who do volunteer work in Tegucigalpa hospitals, we had the opportunity to visit San Felipe, the oldest hospital in the city. The Maternity Building has a beautiful courtyard with flowering shrubs where expectant mothers can walk about. There are three labour rooms, a delivery room, and two large rooms with about twenty beds for the new moms and babies. We saw no bassinets, rather, the babies were lying on the bed with their mother. While fathers-to-be or relatives are not allowed to be present before, during, or after the baby’s birth, they are notified of a successful delivery and the baby’s sex. Nurses do uncomplicated deliveries here, but should complications arise or be anticipated before or after the birth, the mothers or babies are quickly transferred to another hospital with appropriate resources. If the newborn has to be transferred the mother cannot accompany the baby because there is no room provided for her in the receiving institution. Mother and baby are discharged after 24 hours. The cost is 500 L (lempira), approximately $25. This fee is waived if a family is unable to pay. A new outpatient wing is open daily until 1 pm. We were told that the large open, roofed waiting area is always filled. In the ophthalmology clinic, patients’ eyes are examined, and lenses are made and fitted into frames, many of which have been donated. The equipment is old but functional. Contact lenses are not an option for clients here since maintaining them is too costly. The fee for a pair of glasses is 50 L. In another part of the building prostheses are made and fitted to patients. Adjoining is a physio department. Patients admitted for treatment or surgery are in large rooms of about twenty beds. Men and women are in separate wards. Visitors are allowed but a sign over the bed states, “Do not sit on bed.” The beds are the older manually-operated types.
San Felipe also has a new oncology wing for cancer patients who need hospitalization. Home care is not available. Our next stop was at Escuela Hospital (School Hospital) - a teaching hospital. This is a large complex with many departments: Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Surgery, Outpatient clinics for diabetics and others. We were allowed to go to the adult Emergency ward. The waiting area was crowded. In the observation room were numerous cubicles , curtained off, all filled with patients some lying fully clothed on bare stretchers. In an adjoining Trauma room more seriously ill patients were receiving oxygen. I.V.’s were regulated with sophisticated pumps. Doctors and nurses in white(no caps) were very busy attending to the patients. We heard that this hospital has a CT scanner but no MRI. X-ray machines are aging. The only psychiatric hospital in Honduras is next door, named after Dr. Mario Mandosa. It has both in and outpatient facilities. We entered through a sunny courtyard. Male patients in beige and female patients in pink uniforms were walking about. Most were friendly, and some were childlike. An English speaking doctor explained that children are not admitted here as there is a children’s hospital in the city. Men and women sleep in separate ward type rooms but are free to wander about. Bipolar conditions and schizophrenia are prevalent here followed by suicide attempts. Anorexia is also a problem. As patients’ conditions improve they go to a transitional unit where psychologists, occupational therapists, nurses and volunteers work hard to get them ready for discharge. Sometimes discharge is delayed because the person has no clothes to go out with. Welfare is not available here so staff rely heavily on donations of used clothing. Local service clubs fundraise to buy hospital equipment and wheelchairs for needy children, or sponsor doctors from the United States to do corrective surgery such as club feet in children. Much is being done. Much more needs to be done.. |
