790: Dominican Republic Haitians use free medical services (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Dominican Republic Haitians use free medical services
Feb. 15-02
According to the National Council of Population and Family (CONAPOFA), more
than 30,598 foreigners made use of medical services at public hospitals last
year. Of the foreigners, 98.6% were Haitians. The study is entitled
“Incidencia de la demanda de servicios de salud de extranjeros en la RD”
(Incidence of demand for health services by foreigners in the DR). It
reports that the services most in demand were general medicine (68%),
obstetrics (13%) and pediatrics (9%).
The study says the Dominican government spent around RD$50 million to care
for the Haitians.
20% of the foreigners were first time users of the services, 40% had used
the services one to four times in the past, and 40% had used the services
more than four times.
The study also showed that 90% of the foreigners were illiterate or had only
minimal reading and writing skills and 45% of the users of the service were
new arrivals to the DR.
The public hospitals most used by the Haitians are in the provinces of San
Pedro de Macoris, La Romana, La Altagracia, El Seibo, Hato Mayor, Monte
Plata, Valverde, Dajabon, Monte Cristi and Santiago Rodriguez.