Power cut to 2 cancer hospitals in Puerto Rico

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep. (AA) – Puerto Rico’s electricity company on Wednesday cut service to two cancer medical centers for nonpayment of bills, the company said.

Both hospitals located in the Caribbean island’s second city of Ponce had been previously notified of the suspension, said Electric Power Authority (AEE) official Carmen Flores Torres, according to Univision media outlet.

Notice of the service interruption was sent to medical emergency corps, patients advocate office, police and department of Health, Family and Corrections, Torres said.

“The Electric Power Authority is not liable for damages and loss suffered or sustained by patients, employees, visitors, equipment and infrastructure of the hospitals during the time they are without service,” AEE said in a statement on its website.

The notice was posted in local newspapers 10 days before service was cut to allow the institutions to take alternative measures for the health care of patients.

Flores did not specify the amount owed by the Clinical Oncological and the Fight Against Cancer Association facilities.

It is not the first time the AEE has cut services to a medical center.

In March, the company left in the dark another hospital in the south of the island after that facility accumulated $4 million in debt.

AEE reached agreements last month with three other hospitals to avoid suspending service after those facilities began payments.

The service cuts are an attempt by the power company to reduce its debt of $9 billion and it has embarked on an aggressive campaign to collect clients’ bills.

The situation reflects the crisis on the small island of 3.5 million residents, whose territory is buried in a public debt of $70,000 billion deemed “unpayable” by its government.

Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States with self-governing status.