Financial crisis in the public network: Rufino Senén Caba requests urgent intervention from the SNS
The former president of the Dominican Medical Association (CMD), Rufino Senén Caba, has made a formal call to President Luis Abinader to order an immediate intervention in the National Health Service (SNS). The request comes after concerns expressed by the physician regarding the alarming level of debt that, according to his reports, affects the country’s public hospital network.
According to Caba’s statements, approximately 1,700 healthcare facilities have outstanding debts with their suppliers. The former union leader links this precarious financial situation to a drastic drop in the internal collections of health centers, which has limited the operational response capacity of the hospitals.
The president must intervene in the National Health Service because the reports I have indicate that the hospitals in the public network, nearly seventeen hundred structures, are indebted up to their necks.
Rufino Senén Caba, former president of the CMD
Questioning the outsourcing of services
One of the central points of Caba’s complaint is the management of medical services that were previously covered by the hospitals themselves. The doctor warns that the decision to hire private providers to perform diagnostic procedures, such as CT scans and X-rays, has been counterproductive.
- Revenue impact: Outsourcing services that could have been offered internally has reduced direct revenue for hospital centers.
- Increased expenses: Dependence on third parties for basic studies has raised fixed costs, creating a financial imbalance.
- Collection deficit: According to Caba’s estimates, hospital revenue has experienced a decrease of more than 40%.
For the former leader of the CMD, this management model has forced hospital directors to increase their debts with suppliers in order to maintain daily operations, creating a vicious cycle that puts the quality of patient care at risk.
Comprehensive evaluation proposal
During the commemoration of the 135th anniversary of the Dominican Medical Association, Caba reiterated that an intervention by the Executive Branch would allow for a deep financial audit. The objective would be to determine exactly the volume of accumulated obligations and to evaluate whether the current model of external contracting is truly sustainable for the national health system.
The physician emphasized that the Government has the responsibility to clarify the causes behind this indebtedness, ensuring that it is necessary to adopt corrective measures that guarantee the operability of health centers and, above all, the continuity of services destined for the Dominican population.
