The event that took place this Sunday on Route 11 at km 414, in the municipality of Villa Gesell, can be defined as an example of articulation between the public sector and the private sector. With the presence of the mayor, Gustavo Barrera; the general secretary of the Single Union of Rental and Horizontal Building Workers (Suterh), Victor Santa Mariaand the municipal Health Secretary, Miguel Muñoz, the reactivation of works was announced in the clinic that the secretary general of Suteryh Geselino, Carlos Kirco, who died in May of this year, dreamed of a few years ago. Today the project is named after him.
On a sunny noon, several officials, activists and union members met to officially relaunch the works and take a tour. The project was designed to alleviate the saturation of the Municipal Hospital and avoid the complications that patient transfers to Mar del Plata present. or even to more remote cities, as Barrera told this newspaper. Among the services it will provide are floor care, intensive care hospital beds, emergency sector with shock room and 24-hour clinical guard, highly complex imaging service with radiology, ultrasound, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, and outpatient clinics. for medical specialties, laboratory for inpatients and outpatients, sterilization service, pharmacy and catering for inpatients.
The first to speak was Muñoz: “We are proud of this work that brings innovation to the region. That Villa Gesell has been chosen for us is more than commendable. At the beginning we made a visit with Carlos Kirco, with whom we had talked several times about generating an issue of private health. Seeing its prompt completion gives us a boost not only for the public, because we would be channeling some of our patients who could be admitted to this clinic, but also the possibility of attending to other social works. For us this means uniting the public and the private. We both need each other, so thank you for this support.”
Santa María recognized Kirco’s role in the development of the idea and expressed: “I want to fundamentally thank the mayor, who trusted us to carry out the project in his municipality. this work that is of utmost importance for building workers. A work that was Carlos Kirco’s dream: when he brought this proposal we put it into action.” The general secretary reported that the union is also carrying out the construction of other clinics in Mar del Plata and several projects designed as part of “an important health corridor for all building workers in this region, who number around 60 thousand between Mar del Plata, Villa Gesell, Pinamar, the Partido de la Costa, La Plata and the city of Buenos Aires.” The clinic was designed as a high-quality project from its planning: “As you will see, it is a work on horizontal terrain, therefore everything is on the same floor and that makes it better quality in health care“, highlighted Santa María, and thanked the municipality for its support: “At Gustavo we have always found the support for these projects to become a reality.”
The mayor said that it was a historic day “for Villa Gesell for this announcement and for the country for the birth of our beloved General Juan Domingo Perón.” The city has 45 thousand inhabitants, in summer its capacity rises to 230 thousand people and today it is the third tourist destination in the country. As Barrera explained, the health system always works at its limit because “there is no other health provider other than the Municipal Hospital.” The project started with Kirco, there was great progress but then the pandemic came and the work was paralyzed. The mayor highlighted the commitment of Santa María “to Villa Gesell and to health”, asked for applause in his honor and explained: “There is a very large investment here, there are almost three thousand meters with hospitalization rooms, operating rooms, tomographs and technology last generation”.
On the other hand, he highlighted that the project is part of “a five-year plan proposed by Governor Axel Kicillof for health zone VIII” and He criticized those mayors who do not have municipal hospitals and refer their patients to the Mar del Plata Interzonal, which generates a saturation in the system. “We are faced with two models: a capitalist one that thinks about how we can get the most money from the workers, our SMEs, and a deeply humanitarian model that thinks about education, health, the human being and Give your best to the State so that it has possibilities. Let’s continue betting on public education, on public health, on a Villa Gesell that is more united than ever. We need to build, together with Sergio and Axel, that model of country that we have been carrying forward year after year to sustain and improve it,” concluded the mayor, who before starting the tour of the property gave Santa María a statuette made by local artist Alejandro Marmo. and various regional products.
