Danilo Medina questions neonatal health management in the Dominican Republic
The former President of the Republic and current leader of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Danilo Medina, has brought to the table a critical issue for national public health: the worrying neonatal mortality rate. According to the former president, the healthcare system has serious structural flaws that require an exhaustive investigation by the competent authorities.
Medina emphasized that, although the country has a 97.6% prenatal care coverage, these figures do not translate into an effective reduction of deaths in the first 28 days of life. According to his data, 82% of infant deaths occur in this neonatal period, with 80% of these cases being preventable through the correct application of protocols.
Critical factors and challenges in neonatal care
For the former head of state, the problem does not lie in access to health centers, but in the quality of postpartum care. In that sense, he pointed out specific points that the Government must address to improve child health indicators:
- Preterm births and low birth weight: Identified as the main causes requiring a more efficient technical response.
- Breastfeeding: Only 19% of infants receive exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life.
- Cesarean section rate: The high percentage of surgical births, which reaches 68%, is a factor that must be deeply analyzed in the maternal health strategy.
As they are preventable, the Government has to investigate what is happening. These are not coverage problems, they are problems of a lack of execution of the protocols for children after they have been born.
Danilo Medina
Context of infections in hospital centers
These statements come at a time of high social sensitivity, following the detection of an increase in infections by multidrug-resistant microorganisms in the intensive care units of the Nuestra Señora de La Altagracia Maternity Hospital. Given this scenario, the president of the Dominican Medical Association, Luis Peña Núñez, also called for a review of the surveillance and hygiene chain in hospitals.
Peña Núñez emphasized that, while hospital-acquired infections can occur, the current volume of registered cases demands a rigorous audit to determine where controls failed. The pressure on hospital services, exacerbated by the high rate of cesarean sections recently confirmed by the ENHOGAR-MICS 2025 survey, highlights the urgency of strengthening quality standards throughout the Dominican health system.
