Correa verified deterioration in IESS hospital and warned to expropriate clinics that do not assist its patients

President Rafael Correa visited this February 10 the Teodoro Maldonado hospital of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) of Guayaquil, for details on the declaration of state of emergency.

During the visit he verified maintenance problems, control and poor physical conditions in the areas of Emergency, Gynecology, Echosonography, operating rooms and the Maternal Child Unit.

Correa expressed that the deteriorating of the medical center is the result of several factors, including the negligence and indifference. “It is not lack of money, the people of Guayaquil has to have it clear,” he said.

During the roundtable discussion with media he admitted that the hospital administration of the IESS has fallen into double morality and said that “the hospital is a real disaster.”

He also spoke of the possibility of expropriating private clinics that do not assist the patients referred by the IESS. “Because they do not assist derived patients … because private clinics have told us that there is not space for them. Or they accept everyone who is required or we just finish the agreements, or we go to the other extreme, I nationalize the clinics, but they will not play with IESS patients,” Correa said.