New East General Hospital in Paraguay to offer only marginal bed increase amid existing facility's collapse

Ciudad del Este, Paraguay – A new East General Hospital is set to open, but concerns are mounting that it will offer only a marginal improvement over the currently collapsed Regional Hospital. The new facility will feature 204 inpatient beds and 56 intensive care units, a modest increase of 56 beds compared to the existing Regional Hospital's 144 beds. This limited expansion has drawn criticism, as the current hospital is perpetually overwhelmed and plagued by significant structural problems.

Reports from the Regional Hospital paint a grim picture: leaking roofs, mold-infested walls, broken flooring, and dysfunctional, foul-smelling bathrooms are commonplace. Health worker unions and local authorities have long advocated for a larger, more comprehensive facility to serve the region's population of one million. The announcement of a new hospital with only a slight increase in bed capacity has fueled anxieties about the future of public healthcare in the area.

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We are going to get progressively worse.

Authorities have stated that the new hospital, to be built on an 8.7-hectare site, will be the center of highest complexity. The Regional Hospital is slated for restructuring and will continue to operate. Federico Schrodel, director of the Tenth Health Region, emphasized that the goal is to strengthen the health network and improve primary care levels, rather than concentrating all services in one building. The project is being financed by Itaipú, and a multidisciplinary team will assess the necessary human resources for the new hospital's operation. The new hospital's strategic location is also highlighted, situated a few kilometers from surrounding towns and the existing hospital.

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The objective is to strengthen the health network, not decrease the number of beds. With the experiences that have occurred over time in public health, the ideal is that one building does not concentrate the entire population of one million people.