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• 10 / 25 / 2008

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The Cuban Minister of Public Health, Jose Ramon Balaguer, presided over the opening ceremony held in the “Lucia Iñiguez” Surgical Hospital in Holguin.

At this institution, ten years old next November, Balaguer was told about the forthcoming setting up of an Excimer Laser unit, to be used in refractory eye surgery, for the Ophthalmological Center built there. So far 1,500 patients have undergone surgery at this eye center, nineteen of them as recipients of cornea transplants.

Teresita Guillen, administrator of the hospital, detailed to Balaguer the surgical operations carried out this year, including 47 kidney transplants, five more than in 2007.
She also added that there is a 75% survival rate in such operations. There is also a medical team trained in Havana ready to start liver transplants in Holguin.

As part of his visit to the "Octavio de la Concepcion" Pediatric Hospital in the same province, Balaguer was told about the near completion of an Axial Computerized Scanner, a major investment, to improve the quality of medical care and diagnosis.

He also toured the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Hospital, opened by Fidel in 1965, and was informed about their constant efforts to keep on improving the quality of service in spite of their problems.

Balaguer praised the three medical institutions for the work done in the recovery after the passage of Hurricane Ike through the province. He said he appreciated that today there are big advances in the medical services and encouraged local health workers to carry on their good work. / Alexis Rojas
 
(Ahora.cu)