The Social Security Service (CCSS) in Costa Rica reported that this last Friday almost half of the regional health clinics that joined the strike on Monday had resumed operations normally; however, these first five days of strikes left 1,201 programmed surgeries cancelled and 38,921 appointments that did not receive attention.

According to the institution’s authorities, during the week all contingency plans had to be implemented in the institutional units, and they had to use the emergency reserve fund to face the impact generated by the labor union’s movement.

Emergency surgeries took priority of course and those of patients suffering if complicated illnesses such as cancer.

CCSS reports that Monday was the day in which they had the biggest problems, since they were forced to cancel 80% of the surgeries and 27% of the scheduled appointments, 67% (333) of the regional clinics (EBAIS) closed doors; by Friday the number of closed EBAIS was of 147.

The Central Pacific and the Brunca region are the areas where more surgeries had to be cancelled, with 100% and 89.7% respectively.

The health authority also reported high expenses and problems to maintain the hospital clothing clean, the laundry personnel went on strike and protesters were blocking the trucks going and coming with dirty/clean clothing. They had to hire third party services to handle the demand and prevent possible contamination, close to 90 thousand kilograms of clothing have been washed so far, which represents a lot of extra expenses.