The health sector in the province of Holguin during year 2023 had to face many challenges due to the lack of resources, medical supplies and shortage or low coverage of medicines. This was undoubtedly one of the most complex years, where hospital centers such as the Lucía Íñiguez Landín Clinical Hospital, with 27 hospital wards and 36 specialties, had to look for alternatives to maintain the vitality of services.
This purpose was not easy for the fulfillment of the assistance and surgical work, the latter being one of the activities for which the hospital was distinguished at the national level, but in view of the limitations of resources for essential activities such as transplants or surgeries, the personnel who work there has had to work tirelessly to continue bringing health to the population of Holguín and nearby territories that come to this hospital with 25 years of experience.
Lucía Íñiguez Landín Clinical Hospital, challenges, Holguín, health
In this sense, the director of this provincial hospital, Dr. Luis Mario Carrasco Feria, shares some considerations about the work of Lucía Hospital in 2023.
How much has this hospital evolved and grown in terms of services and care since its foundation?
-If we remember that this hospital started with the first tomograph in the province, it began with the minimum access surgery service. Although it was not the pioneer in the province because it had already started at Vladimir Ilich Lenin Hospital, it contributed to its development, not only in the general surgery specialty, but also in neurosurgery, where we remember the stereotactic surgeries that were performed. In that case, we have achieved a high impact at the provincial and national level in emergency minimal access surgery.
I remember that in 2002, when the Commander (Fidel) came here, we were on duty and he asked us what had been done and precisely that day three emergency cases had been operated on for minimal excess. This marked the development of other advanced techniques, and thoracic surgery was practically explored, to the extent that high-tech resources are available to us.
Thoracic surgery has been explored for minimal excess, splenectomy, gynecological surgery, and in the urological area, multiple surgeries have been performed, especially in the upper urinary tract. Something that marked this hospital at a national level was the functional surgery of Parkinson’s disease and minimal access stereotactic surgery, with the installation of the tomograph. This hospital was initially growing as an admissions reception center to receive referrals of Internal Medicine and non-traumatic General Surgery from the municipalities fropm Holguín province.
Lucía Íñiguez Landín Clinical Hospital, challenges, Holguín, health
Then it was incorporated specialties such as Hematology, Gastroenterology, Neurology, without having to do with trauma patient care. It was at another time when the hospital added the attention to these patients, with the opening of the Provincial Trauma Center or Provincial Trauma Care, which until then was located at the Lenin Hospital.
We cannot forget the incorporation to the hospital of the Ophthalmologic Center, to which the Provincial Retinitis Pigmentosa Center was added more recently. Later, due to a reorganization process at the level of the Ministry of Health, the Center for Research and Rehabilitation of Hereditary Ataxias (Cirah) was also incorporated.
The hospital has grown, and as the number of beds has grown, so have the services. Hemodialysis, which was also one of the pioneers, has become the largest hemodialysis center in the province.
In the course of time, this hospital has played a fundamental role in the attention to the epidemics that have hit the province, with the attention to the cases of cholera, dengue and what most marked its history, the confrontation with the COVID-19, where we were one of the largest provincial hospitals for the attention to the patient with alarm signs of this disease.
This is how this hospital came to have more than 800 beds for this purpose. So it started with approximately one hundred and so beds and at present it has around 625 beds, distributed in 27 wards and 36 specialties, of which 12 are interconsultational”.
Lucía Íñiguez Landín Clinical Hospital, challenges, Holguín, health
How have health services and indicators performed during the year 2023 in this center?
-The greatest achievement of this year, I think, is that we have remained vital and have not lowered our attention, even when we know that we are lacking so many things. And so we have such important services as Gastroenterology, Rheumatology, Internal Medicine, geriatric care, Neurology, which is not only this specialty, but we have become a center for the care of patients with cerebrovascular disease, together with the rehabilitation of these patients, Ophthalmology, the Cirah, the work being done with retinitis pigmentosa, vascular surgery.
We cannot fail to mention the impact that the hospital has undoubtedly had in the face of the economic situation, which has brought affectations especially in the material part, for example this was a hospital that in 2019 closed with 21 thousand surgeries and this has not been that number. This has been another challenge to face but we have a committed staff, which makes a commitment to work and despite the difficulties sees in the patient the only reason to work and try to do well, even when the material conditions are in a complex situation.”
Lucía Íñiguez Landín Clinical Hospital, challenges, Holguín, health, Cuba
With the experience acquired in dealing with infections, what actions has the center taken to face possible epidemics in the future?
-At present, we have already incorporated in our structure a service for the care of infectious diseases that allows us to avoid having to deploy an emergency system when there is an alert or alarm of this type of disease. There are already rooms available for the care of any infectious or epidemic disease that may arise.”
In terms of scientific development, how is the improvement of human resources?
-Since its early years, the hospital has been growing in terms of research and, at the same time, in terms of teaching. The hospital currently has four doctors of science and more than 12 are preparing their doctorates. So it has been growing in parallel to the healthcare situation in the research sphere, so that scientific work has undoubtedly marked the hospital’s development”.
Challenges…
-Today the Lucia Hospital faces many challenges, the improvement of its engineering system, which has been advancing over time with its ups and downs but which has allowed it to maintain a vital hospital.
This hospital ended 2019 as a national leader in renal transplantation. Even guidelines are drawn that we have not abandoned, we expect a revival of the health system in the economic part without abandoning the dream of turning our hospital into a regional center for liver transplantation, because of the history we have of having the pioneer of this surgery, Dr. Lorenzo. But renal transplantation undoubtedly played a fundamental role, and we hope to be able to revive this surgery, which is so fundamental for the patient with renal failure”.
Work projections for 2024?
-The hospital’s first projection for 2024 is to continue looking for strategies and alternatives to maintain a vital hospital. To try with the little things we have, to maintain a vital hospital and to help alleviate a little of the needs that our people are going through today. This is achieved with hard work and dedication.
We are struck by the working spirit of our health personnel, who despite the conditions that affect them individually and in their families, the first demand they make of us is resources to be able to work. The idea is to keep this hospital vital and providing the services that guarantee the health of the people and not to give up scientific development”.
After 25 years, this health care giant that is Lucía Hospital hospital is organizing its work to maintain its vitality. There are many challenges ahead for the health sector and countless actions to be taken to improve the provision of services and provide better care to the population of this northeastern territory.
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