In the Yojoa Lake region of central Honduras the people suffer from many of the same disparities highlighted by this website: poverty, inadequate water supply, sanitation and infectious disease. But there is an additional problem with healthcare, which compounds these everyday hardships. Throughout the region there are established public and private clinics that handle general health issues like infections, minor surgeries, and other common ailments. These clinics however, are small, under-funded and lack the equipment and resources to handle larger emergency problems like birthing complications, blood transfusions, and emergency surgeries. For the more complex medical problems patients are sent to larger hospitals within some of the bigger cities. Problems begin to arise with transportation, as there are only a few ambulances in the area. Most often patients are taken in the back of cars or pickups to the closest public hospital that is nearly an hour and a half away in San Pedro Sula. Here the patient faces problems of shear numbers. This is the only public hospital within an even larger area that is capable of handling any kind of trauma case and it is always full. Many times even high priority patients have to wait weeks for treatment. There are a number of private hospitals in San Pedro Sula and in other cities about equal distance from the Yojoa region that offer quality care on the spot, but in a country where few people have health insurance and a majority live under three dollars a day, this kind of treatment can be a devastating financial obligation.
A Honduran team of doctors, healthcare workers and community activists together with Peace Corps and other international volunteers are currently working to solve this problem. Lead by Dr. Milton Mendoza of Santa Cruz de Yojoa the team is taking a two-tiered approach towards building a sustainable regional emergency hospital. The first step is to establish an Infant Maternity Ward in Santa Cruz to serve the Yojoa area women who have no access to birth specialists. The team is in the process of converting an existing building into a working maternity facility. The hope is that within a year the maternity ward will be fully operating and will help generate the excitement and support necessary to take the next step of building the larger emergency hospital, which will be located outside of Santa Cruz on the Pan-American Highway.
The hospital will be the only one of its kind in Honduras. It will be held to all the same standards of an American hospital and will be capable of handling any emergency. The most exciting aspect of this hospital is that it will have characteristics of both a public and private facility. It will resemble a public hospital in that no patient requiring care will be turned away, but its independence from government aid will keep it a private entity. Those patients that can pay will be required to do so and those who cannot will be covered by a social board comprised of local doctors, clergy, and other community members. The purpose of the board is to solicit contributions from the community as well as international donators. 70% of all funding goes into the operations of the hospital and the remaining 30% goes to the social board that disperses funds for the nonpaying patients.
We are currently actively seeking funds from individuals, organizations and foundations. More detailed information will be provided in the coming months please stay posted, as this is all a work in progress.
For more information about project details please contact: Oscar Lai Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras scarlai@gmail.com
Or Evan C. Milton Volunteer ecmilton@gmail.com
