Ihss

Social Security patients are spending L3,000–L6,000 monthly (about $120–$240) out of pocket for medications and supplies due to treatment delays, with chronic and cancer patients most severely affected by administrative backlogs and supply shortages.

Patients covered by Honduras's social security system are urging authorities to expand coverage and improve service quality, citing the near-impossibility of obtaining specialist appointments.

Honduras's social-security hospital faces a shortage of cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, oncologists, and other critical specialists, a problem compounded by fiscal restrictions that cap spending despite willingness to hire more doctors.

Three cardiologists have quit Honduras's public health institute (IHSS) citing low wages and lack of permanent appointments, leaving the system with only one cardiologist when officials say five to seven are needed in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula alone.

The president of the IHSS doctors' association says the social-security institute faces a severe crisis driven by government debt exceeding 30 billion lempiras (about $1.2 billion) and another 6 billion lempiras from other sectors, compounded by overcrowding, physician shortages, and no new buildings in over 30 years.

The president of the IHSS physicians' association reports that Honduras's main public hospital remains in severe decay despite a three-month emergency decree, with persistent shortages of surgeons, staff, medicines, and functioning laundry services.

A Liberal congressman introduced legislation to ensure workers applying for IHSS retirement benefits maintain medical coverage during the often-months-long processing period, arguing that some Hondurans risk death without treatment during the transition.

Jesús Alexis Maradiaga, a four-year-old from Santa Cruz de Yojoa who fell from a bus on May 21 and spent weeks in intensive care after two emergency surgeries, was discharged from IHSS on June 19; his grandfather's photo of prayer at the hospital's pediatric ICU had gone viral, drawing nationwide prayers for the child's recovery.

Honduras's Social Security Institute has begun a program to reduce its surgical waiting list, with 143 procedures already completed in San Pedro Sula, where more than 3,000 patients await surgery; the institute says it is cleaning up outdated records and contracting private medical firms to expand capacity.

Cancer patients at the Honduran Social Security Institute report a three-month shortage of carboplatin, an essential chemotherapy drug, forcing them to buy vials costing over L3,000 (about $120) out of pocket or forgo complete treatment.

Patients returned to hospitals and clinics after physicians and the government reached a deal ending ten days of labor protests, though appointment backlogs, medicine shortages, and long wait times persist.