Francisco Mosquera
By Francisco Mosquera. Taken from Consonante.org
More than 6,000 people in El Tabor, Playa de Oro, Carmelo, Corcovado and Tapón ask to be guaranteed primary health care in their townships, where medical centers are now houses covered with weeds. The Mayor’s Office assures that it will file a project to request resources from the Ministry of Health.
The health posts of five towns in Tadó – El Tabor, Playa de Oro, Carmelo, Corcovado and Tapón – are completely abandoned, destroyed and without the necessary equipment. Those who live in these areas, approximately 6,250 people, must travel to the San José de Tadó Hospital, in the urban area, and when they arrive they cannot find appointments nor are they guaranteed care.
Health post in El Tapón, rural area of Tadó. Photo: Francisco Mosquera.
The health post in El Tabor is the newest. It is located about 41 kilometers from Tadó and was built in December of last year. The infrastructure is optimal and maintains its white, recently painted façade; However, it does not have the necessary equipment nor has medical personnel been hired. It is only a one-level house, in which nothing works today.
Health center in El Tabor. Photo: Francisco Mosquera.
Juana Bolaños, a resident of El Tabor, comments that her community has been without a health center for more than 5 years and must go to the Tadó Hospital. “When someone gets sick they have to go to the hospital by motorcycle taxi because we have no other means of transportation. When we get to the emergency room we have to wait for hours, and that’s where the ordeal begins,” she says.
“When someone gets sick they have to go to the hospital by motorcycle taxi because we have no other means of transportation. When we get to the emergency room we have to wait for hours, and that’s where the Stations of the Cross begin.
Juana Bolaños, resident of El Tabor
“It is impossible to make a medical appointment to have the exams read and this situation leads many patients to not visit the hospital and only go when they cannot take care of themselves,” adds Bolaños.
In this town there are about 3,000 people who require an adequate health center. Magaly Sánchez, another resident, questions the fact that the municipality’s medical staff is not being taken advantage of: “In 2023 they built a health post in El Tabor, but it needs resources and hiring staff. We have nursing assistants who give us first aid when someone gets sick, but they are unemployed and waiting to be hired.”
In Playa de Oro, 35 kilometers from Tadó and a township with 2,000 inhabitants, the situation is also worrying. There is a health center where only one nurse works. In this place there is humidity, broken tanks and tubs full of water in the patio that leads to the proliferation of mosquitoes.
Ramón Eliseo Lemus, a resident of the township, highlights that a single nurse is not enough. “We have a nurse who is there every day, Monday through Friday. She does everything in her power to serve people and we are satisfied with her service, but we know that there are procedures that are out of her hands. She makes the report, calls the Tadó health center and refers the patient, but they don’t treat us there either,” he emphasizes.
Ana Billy Castro, a resident of Playa de Oro, thinks the same, and asks that the care of patients in the rural area be ensured: “When a patient arrives, they have to wait late hours to be attended to and they do not receive an answer. We need a permanent doctor in the rural area, we ask that the Playa de Oro health post be fixed and we have a doctor to care for the villages and towns of Alto San Juan,” she concludes.
“We need a permanent doctor in the rural area, we ask that the Playa de Oro health post be fixed and we have a doctor to care for the villages and towns of Alto San Juan”
Ana Billy Castro, resident of Playa de Oro
For her part, nurse Luz Dary Mosquera Valencia, who attends the Playa de Oro health post, emphasizes that the condition of the place is fair and is without sufficient resources. “The physical plant needs repairs. A few days ago we informed the Minister of Health about the problems in the rural area. We asked for a primary care center to be created and they asked us to submit a proposal,” she adds.
“At the health post, microscopes, wheelchairs, beds, mats and all the basic elements for adequate care are needed. In addition, we need doctors, ultrasound engineers, bacteriologists, we lack health professionals in all areas,” he questions. Furthermore, Mosquera adds that they do not have ambulances in the rural area. The two ambulances assigned by the Ministry of Health have not arrived at the municipality either. and currently there is only a rented ambulance at the hospital.
In Carmelo, 40 kilometers from Tadó and with 590 inhabitants, the health center is in a high-risk area and, therefore, people are asking for it to be relocated. The place is in ruins, full of weeds, with walls destroyed by humidity and roofs in poor condition.
Francisca Nelly Mosquera, a resident of the Carmelo district, assures that since 2016 the health center has been abandoned. “The local authorities have said that they are going to relocate this position because it is in a flood zone. Many people have died due to lack of medical attention, since there is no one and no means to provide first aid. We have made a proposal to local administrations so that they at least rent us a house to provide first aid,” she indicates.
«Many people have died due to lack of medical attention, since there is no one and no means to provide first aid. “We have made a proposal to the local administrations so that they at least rent us a house to provide first aid.”
Francisca Nelly Mosquera, resident of the Carmelo district
“When someone gets sick we have to try to get to Tadó in any way and the road is in very bad condition. First we treat him with traditional ancestral medicine so that he resists and if the disease is very serious, we take him to a healthcare center, but there they tell us that there is no appointment (schedule) for an outpatient consultation,” he adds.
In Corcovado, 22 kilometers from Tadó and with 390 inhabitants, the health post is also overgrown with weeds. It has no roofs or windows and is completely abandoned.
Ramiro Mosquera, a resident of the township, assures that this health post has been in deterioration for five years. “The mayor has not come here to talk to the people, the sick are transported by motorcycle taxi because the ambulances do not arrive either. And we can’t even take medical appointments at the Tadó Hospital,” he adds.
In El Tapón, 8 kilometers from Tadó and with 270 people, the house that previously functioned as a health post remains only a notice. It is dirty, with destroyed doors, no windows and in total ruin. In the rooms there are sticks and even bats.
Yuly Constancia Murillo Bolaño, leader of the town of Tapón, says that the El Tapón health post has been disabled for more than eight years. “We don’t have nurses or anyone who cares for us. Most of our people suffer from blood pressure and we have to go down to Tadó to have them taken. People die here and nothing happens,” she adds.
Other citizens talk about the impediments to accessing health care. “People don’t want to go to the hospital because of mistreatment and rejection. That service hurts one. They tell us that they are not authorized to supply certain medications,” says Aleris Copete, a resident of Tadó.
Another woman who asks to reserve her name has the same opinion: “The hospital manager must get serious about patient care, it cannot be that they only order ibuprofen and acetaminophen, they send people home just as sick.”
A promise that has not yet arrived
The mayor of Tadó, Juan Carlos Palacios Agualimpia, has told the communities that he will staff the health post with doctors, nurses and social workers. But the reality is that those who require a procedure must travel to Quibdó, two hours from Tadó. In interview with Consonante, in November 2023, Palacios assured that his priority During the first year it would be to improve the San José de Tadó Hospital and enable rural health centers. A promise that comes from administration of Cristian Copete and that is not yet seen.
Brenda Yulieth Mosquera Sánchez, municipal health coordinator, recognizes that the municipality’s health posts “are in a deplorable state” and that they have gone years without intervention in their physical plant and equipment. “We are in a management process to be able to intervene in all these health posts, they are being studied and waiting for the network document to know how the health posts will turn out,” she indicates.
However, Mosquera adds that they do not have a date for intervention in these places: “We do not know when we will put the health posts into operation because at this moment we are in the process of building operation and intervention from the Ministry. of health. These health posts are in ruins and the intervention is not only superficial, but must include infrastructure and equipment.” Mosquera points out that the resources must be assigned by the Government.
“We do not know when we will put the health posts into operation because we are currently in the process of building operation and intervention from the Ministry of Health.”
Brenda Yulieth Mosquera Sánchez, Tadó health coordinator
Everth Casas, manager of the Tadó Hospital, points out that with the local administration they are working on an intervention project so that the Ministry of Health can allocate resources to improve the health posts in Playa de Oro, Carmelo and Guarato. The project, according to what he reports, will be filed in the first week of April.
Meanwhile, the communities wait for health posts to be enabled and for primary care to be guaranteed in their districts. “We ask the administration and the Government that this proposal of living with dignity is reflected in the health of our people,” says Francisca Nelly Mosquera, from Carmelo.
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