The new Hospital del Niño  (HN) came to another bend in the tortuous seven-year path to the start of construction on Monday,  June 28.

When doctors and administrators arrived at the Santo Tomas Hospital, considered a historical heritage site, they found the grounds occupied by machinery and construction workers busy cutting down trees. Doctors and staff gathered on the site to protest.

Meanwhile, Paul Gallardo the director of the Children’s Hospital outlined the ups and downs of the long struggle to get the project started.

The first tender for the design and construction was made in   2013 but it was born with a congenital defect because one of the buildings would have been built on one of the Santo Tomás Hospital grounds.

After complaints, a different tender was made for the design and development of plans. There were also some problems because the type of construction was not compatible with the guidelines established for buildings considered historical heritage said Dr Gallardo.

Later it was established that a restructuring would be carried out and it was modified by budgetary issues due to the current situation of the country.

It was originally a $614 million project but costs had to be lowered. Currently, the cost is estimated at $443 million, but that price only includes the construction of two towers: the HN tower, the parking lot, and the restoration of the gardens " which have always been included since the tender was made." Dr Gallardo told TVN

By 2010, the problem worsened after structural studies carried out by the Technological University and a foreign company, reaching the conclusion that the structures were sick, representing a structural risk, hence the urgency to build a new hospital.

Dr Gallardo also recalled that in 1979 an annex was built for a neonatal ward that was originally designed to serve 30 or 40 patients, but currently there are between 80 and 90.

The new hospital is, looking at international standards, has a 100% occupancy of beds in general pediatric and intensive care rooms, which represents a great risk for the country, because it is the main reference pediatric hospital in the whole nation.

On Tuesday, June 29, 72 children were in pediatric intensive care wards, of which 50 are connected to a ventilator.