Planned Hospital for Children in Tijuana Bit Closer to Reality

Doctors and dignitaries joined in a groundbreaking ceremony at a site that could one day be the locale of the region’s first hospital to specialize in the care of children.

The ceremony at a 10-acre lot in Mesa de Otay, near the border crossing, was held Thursday, the Day of the Child in Mexico. Construction of the $12-million facility is due to begin in late 1994. Officials expect the construction to be complete in the late 1990s.

Dr. Gabriel Chong King, head of the local state workers’ hospital, and Betty Jones, a nutritionist who has been a volunteer at the hospital since 1976, spearheaded the planning for the proposed 82-bed hospital.

King and Jones say the construction will not begin for two years because they need time to raise $6 million necessary to start building. Chong and Jones have created the nonprofit Foundation for the Children of the Californias to collect money for the center.

The land was donated by the Baja California state administration of Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel.

“We have the will, but others have the means, and this project can only become a reality if the will and the means come together for the benefit of the children of this region,” Chong said.

According to a foundation statement, Baja California is one of a handful of states in Mexico without a children’s hospital. This, despite the fact that half of its population is under the age of 18.

Ten percent of an estimated 1 million children in the state, a majority of whom live in and around Tijuana, need medical treatment annually. The foundation notes that 60% of those do not have access to such care.

Chong, who has spent 11 years working at the state workers’ hospital, lamented the precarious conditions under which the hospital must operate. With an annual budget of $3.6 million, the hospital is hard-pressed to serve the 28,000 state workers and their families under its care.

The hospital also provides care for many of the city’s indigent, especially children. The specialized medical and technical support needed to save children’s lives--organ transplants and the treatment of cancer and burns, for example--is virtually nonexistent, Chong said.

The hospital’s 15-bed pediatric ward operates at capacity most of the year, he said. Respiratory and intestinal illnesses brought about by poor hygienic conditions take the largest toll among Tijuana’s children.