They denounce the closure of the Laura Bonaparte Mental Health Hospital It is the only national AMBA mental health facility

Staff at the Laura Bonaparte National Mental Health Hospital denounced that the national government decided to close this specialized mental health centre, the only one of its kind in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. This measure affects more than 600 workers who, so far this year, have provided care to about 25,000 people even in the midst of the harsh adjustment that the sector is experiencing..

“This happened from one day to the next. We did not know anything until today, although we were told that the government would actually sign the hospital closure decree, which would come into effect on Monday or Tuesday next week,” said Leonardo Fernandez. Camacho, General Delegate of ATE, in dialogue with Page/12.

Hours later, the national government vaguely announced that it was in fact closing the Laura Bonaparte National Mental Health Hospital. They officially announced this as follows: “As part of the reorganization of the system, the National Ministry of Health today initiated the Bonaparte Hospital restructuring plan. The decision responds to the goal of prioritizing the allocation of resources to patients who need them. To move forward with the reorganization of the health center, toThe health portfolio began referring patients to other institutions. It is important to note that it is not closed, and services are being reorganized. Since the beginning of management, work has been done to return the hospital to normal as a result of the lack of utilization of its capacity, which is evident in the decrease in the number of patients being treated in the institution.

“The national government has just announced the complete closure of the inpatient service at the Laura Bonaparte National Mental Health Hospital, where there are currently hospitalized patients. It has also ordered the complete closure of the on-call service, and the abandonment of mental health patients,” the workers announced.

Fernández Camacho – a lawyer and social worker – commented that in the morning the director of the institution, Cristian Baldino, announced the inappropriate measure that led to the closure of only the guard and confinement services: “This causes many problems. It happens that there are fifty people detained and the hospital also serves as a day center.” In addition, it provides care to adults and also to children and adolescents who suffer from fragile conditions and deal, among other aspects, with the problem of consumption. The delegate added that “until now we are experiencing the same situation as other government agencies: namely, quarterly contract renewals and arbitrary dismissals.” .

Drip loss

As a result, in the last two months the hospital has lost 60 professionals: half of them were dismissed and the other half left due to unstable working conditions. “It is a situation we are going through, just like the Spanish Hospital or the Garahan Hospital,” the delegate said.

“The machines that take care of us as people in a multidisciplinary, precise and compassionate way are closed,” explained Anne Millett, a social worker at the hospital. He added: “For the national government to directly attack the mental health of the population is a very clear message. It is not just about shutting down Bonaparte, it is what they were doing with the policies they were implementing: not meeting their needs exacerbated the problem.” “Direct impact on our mental health and well-being.”.

The hospital is the administrative and reference body for public policy in the field of mental health. Soledad Rivas is a psychiatrist and deputy delegate of the ATE and works in the Guard that has just been closed: “From here the training is provided to the entire country, and at the same time the necessary cases of our specialties are also supervised. The population that consults is mostly the one that does not have coverage, and is Providing medications to patients with chronic mental health treatments who are uninsured in any other jurisdiction, all of these people will be left adrift with their treatments and mental health illnesses.

The workers decided to stay at their jobs. The hospital provides care in various health fields such as the medical clinic, clinical laboratory, dentistry and pharmacy. Moreover, it involves a regional approach, which means that this network is also at risk.

Hospital history

Although its history goes back to the nineteenth century, during the 1970s it operated under the name of the National Center for Social Re-education (Cenariso) and from the 1980s onwards it became involved in the process of making the concept of mental health more complex and expansive. .

In 2016, its name was changed. Its name pays tribute to psychologist Laura Bonaparte de Brochten, human rights activist and mother of the founding line of Plaza de Mayo. It is also a hospital that specifically supports the LGTBIQ* community; Its auditorium is named after Diana Sakayan, and before the trans worker quota law existed, the hospital already had 1 percent trans workers.

From the Association of Professionals of the Ricardo Gutierrez Children’s Hospital expressed their opinions “Deeply concerned” about the lockdown announcement. “Hospital Laura Bonaparte is the only health service provider in the city of Buenos Aires that specializes in consumer problems. It provides mental health treatments to thousands of patients, “At a time when mental health problems are increasing at an alarming rate, the closure of their caregiver exacerbates the population’s deteriorating health care,” they stressed.

“We strongly reject the announced measure and call on the authorities to cancel it,” they claimed.

Rejection of human rights organizations

Various human rights organizations defended the continuity of the Laura Bonaparte Hospital: “Only a ungrateful, inhumane and perverted government, which exercises power with tyranny and cruelty, could dare to make a decision to this effect, at a time when mental health care in our country is a priority. They pointed out that “the huge increase in psychological suffering is a result of the state of vulnerability to which the government itself leads its population, due to its political, economic and social measures.”

The statement highlights the necessity of “raising our voice in the face of this new violation of human rights, as suggested by the closure of a public hospital, in this case, an institution with excellent human resources, and it could not be otherwise, led by the name of our beloved Laura Bonaparte, mother of Plaza Di Maio Leña, founder, psychologist, feminist and tireless health and human rights activist We stand in solidarity with all hospital workers and call on social and political organizations, unions and society to support this fight in defense of the hospital and public health.

This joint statement was signed by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo – Founding Line, relatives of the disappeared and politically detained, HIJOS Capital, the Permanent Association for Human Rights, the Association of Good Memory, the Memory Commission, Truth and Justice of the Northern Region, relatives and comrades. Of the 12 Holy Cross, the Argentine Historical and Social Memory Foundation and the Ecumenical Human Rights Movement.