Correa apologizes for late ‘megahospital’ IESS Los Ceibos

Equipped with helmets and reflective vest, President Rafael Correa and President of the Board of IESS, Richard Espinosa, toured the land where the hospital of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute, located in the Los Ceibos, in northern Guayaquil is built . Tuesday morning 16 February 2016, the movement of machinery and workers was intense in place. The construction, which will invest USD 200 275 473, is in charge of Sino-Spanish consortium NGH, formed by Sinohydro and Bridges. The new hospital IESS for the city was planned since 2011. But only in this year its construction and final design was completed. In some of his speeches, both Correa and Espinosa acknowledged the delay and offered apologies. “I owe you an apology, that makes me look bad and I do not like those things, I’m not demagogue. two or three years ago the former director, Ramiro Gonzalez, brought me to put first stone. But insisted so much that we came to lay the first stone, and there was absolutely nothing, “said the President in a yellow safety vest. five years in the administration of González, it was established that the reference budget for this project would be $ 280 million ago. Of that amount, about USD 266.7 million financed through the Bank of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (Biess), by a trust. Espinosa stressed that, for the new calculations, there is a savings to the IESS. And promised it would be finished in February 2017. “Unfortunately there were a number of difficulties, where a series of trusts, legal gibberish all it took to untangle were created,” he said. The megahospital, as baptized Espinosa, will rise in an area of ​​76 000 m2, which belonged to the Workers’ Club IESS. Which worker s wearing clothing with reflective tape. You will have six towers, seven floors each, and even a helipad. It will have 550 beds, 20 operating rooms and can serve more than one million patients. It will offer 26 medical specialties in 105 multi-purpose offices. In addition it will have 30 intensive care beds, 12 beds in a burn unit, 78 emergency and 12 chairs for hemodialysis, with potential to expand to 110 seats. As it is operational, President Correa said referrals to private clinics will be reduced. “This hospital costs us USD 200 million. Just last year we spent USD 750 million in derivations, a huge amount; We can build almost four hospitals of these. ” At the beginning of his speech, and after explaining he would not talk much about feeling ill, the president referred to the debt of USD 8 000 million that would have the state with the IESS. “Technically it could well be considered (a debt). But on the other hand it could also be considered the best investment IESS. Not that we are behind, they are buying bonds that the IESS, with a yield of 7.5%. By the way, that’s part of the public debt of the state and comes from our own money. “