Workers at the Bonaparte Hospital hug the building in rejection of the closure announced by the Government
Workers and relatives of patients at the National Red Hospital “Lic. Laura Bonaparte” this Monday held a symbolic hug at the mental health center located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Parque Patricios, in rejection of the Ministry of Health’s announcement. “The Bona does not close!” chanted again and again the protesters who participated in the measure of force, which culminated in a press conference by Rodolfo Aguiar, general secretary of ATE.
On Friday at noon, through a statement released by the National Health Network, the doctors at the Bonaparte Hospital were notified that the Government had ordered the closure of the guard and new hospitalizations. Consequently, the workers interpreted it as a first step towards the definitive closure of this hospital, specialized in mental health and problematic consumption.
However, during the weekend the managers asked the workers to continue with the usual care, and because of this the workers themselves established a system so that none of the services provided were cut.
“The only official communication we have is that of Friday, when they told us that the guard and the hospitalization were closing. Today we are supporting our jobs,” explained a doctor from the entrance steps to the Bonaparte hospital, while she was part of the force measure.
In dialogue with the TN news channel, the doctor said that today “the guard is operating with minimal care and the patients are still hospitalized.”
“No to closure”: the legend that is read on banners and on a garbage container located in front of the Bonaparte Hospital
Claudia, mother of a patient admitted to Bonaparte, highlighted the work of the professionals who care for her daughter, who recently showed significant improvements in her condition. “I was seeking treatment for a year, and since my daughter has been here, she has changed so much. “He has a mild personality disorder,” the woman explained. And along those lines, he valued: “Now he is finishing high school and then he is going to go to college to study as an instrumentalist. All this would not have been achieved if it were not for this hospital.”
“We are a poor family of disabled people and they take excellent care of us. There are doctors who have stopped eating themselves so that their patients can eat. Mental health is overwhelmed. They don’t take people into any hospital because they can’t cope,” he warned at the end of the report.
For her part, Claudia Sachetti, one of the psychologists who provide care at the Bonaparte, contradicted the arguments to order the gradual closure of the mental health center presented by the Government, from where they assured that it has an annual budget of 16.8 billion pesos but which maintains “an average occupancy of only 30 patients, and a hospitalization rate that ranges between 16 and 19 people.”
“There are currently 40 patients hospitalized, and so far this year 98 thousand consultations have been received. We have a spontaneous demand care service, which provides care from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to any patient who enters the institution and receives a first hearing,” the professional listed.
And dissatisfied with the decision adopted by the portfolio led by Minister Mario Lugones, he stressed: “Patients are not a number.”
“We are going to stay working and caring for patients. For me this is very painful. I am not here for myself, I am here for the patients because all their rights are affected. Patients who have nowhere else to go. That they can be derived is not true. Where are they going to go? Where are they going to receive the quality of care that we provide? There is no other place, this is a national hospital,” concluded Dr. Sachetti.
According to Bonaparte workers, there are currently 40 patients hospitalized (enluchaelbonaparte)
As scheduled, Rodolfo Aguiar, head of ATE, was the speaker at the press conference and gave voice to the claim of the Bonaparte hospital workers. “We reject any possibility of closing services, starting an emptying process or closing the Bonaparte hospital. A reference hospital, a model hospital in mental health care for the entire country,” the union leader emphasized from the door of the health center, before a crowd that was waiting for his word.
In a statement released last Friday, the authorities explained that “the closure responds to a normalization process that we began a long time ago due to low occupancy and inefficiency in the use of resources.” In addition, they detailed that the decision will not affect hospitalized patients, who will be referred to other institutions under the orbit of the Ministry of Health. They also guaranteed that those in outpatient treatments will be treated in other institutions within the community or in hospitals in their respective jurisdictions.
From ATE they sent a statement in which they announced the takeover of the facilities. “The apathy and incompetence of the Government in matters of health is alarming, but this decision to close hospitals generates an escalation of conflict within the State. The forceful measures will begin to be harsher and this occurs under the exclusive responsibility of the Executive Branch,” said Rodolfo Aguiar, general secretary of ATE Nacional.
