For patients waiting months, sometimes years, for an operation, a new measure is under way to speed things up next year. The Social Security System (Caja) is to inject ¢1 billion ($2 million) into public health care to pay surgeons to work overtime, from 4-10 p.m. every day of the week, the daily La Nación reported.
This could bring solace to the almost 50,000 people whose names trail down the combined waiting lists of 19 public hospitals, according to the total collected in September.