Emergency Room System in Collapse
Costa Rica is experiencing a collapse in hospil emergency rooms. The crisis has forced some hospitals to stop receiving patients, like the situation at the hospital San Juan de Dios in downtown San José, who will receive only life threatening emergencies.

Hospitals in Cartago, Puntarenas and Limón may have to do the same.

The decision by San Juan de Dios in San José has put pressure on the other hospitals in the capital, the Calderón Guardia and Hospital México, for example.

Hospital emergency rooms cannot cope with the increase in the number of patients arriving at emergency rooms, which in most cases is double or triple the normal capacity.

At the Max Peralta hospital in Cartago, the emergency room receives between 30 and 40 patients a day all year round at an emergency room built for 20. The Monseñon Sanabria in Puntarenas sees some 350 to 400 patients when it can only handle 280. A similar situation is at the Tony Facio hospital in Limóm.

Private hospitals, like the CIMA and Clinica Biblica in san José are a different matter. At times their emergency room is complete empty. The emergency room at CIMA hospital in Escazú can seem deserted on a Sunday night.

The Ministerio de Salud (Ministry of Health) that operates the public hospitals has it's hand full in finding a solution to the current problem. Health officials admit that the overcrowding situation will continues for some time.