"THE RODELU HOSPITAL" is a photo report which I began working on in the beginning of 2004, and which I have continued to develop this year, in the Hospital de Clinicas "Dr. Manuel Quintela".

In the beginning, my idea was to continue to address the topic of urban and social deterioration in the city of Montevideo, potentially through themes such as public health, university education, or the emmigration of Uruguayans overseas.

Once I decided to explore the theme of public health, I found myself working in the Hospital de Clinicas, primarily because it allowed me to connect the topic of public health with the topic of university education.

Secondly, I was drawn to this site because it was one of the hospitals so emblematic of Uruguay and because its services were basically contained within one building.

Finally, I chose this hospital because it exists in the collective memory of Uruguayan people as a hospital which has suffered increasing deterioration. (Even though there are many people who have never been attended there and who do not even know of its situation, the decline of this hospital is "vox populis" in Uruguayan society.)

The lack of hygiene, the deterioration of the building itself, and the shortage of medical equipment, are all problems well known by any patient who has been admitted. Moreover, these problems have intensified since the year 2002 due to the severe economic crisis suffered by Uruguay.

This crisis brought about, among other things, the closing of several private health facilities (named "mutualistas") as many people could not afford to pay for private health coverage. All these people were forced to access public health, causing the near collapse of the entire public health system. Moreover, in July 2002, the emergency section of the Hospital de Clinicas had to close its doors, due to lack of financial support.

To start with, I visited almost all parts of the hospital in order to familiarise myself with the state of the hospital and the situation of its patients.

I was able to observe that the majority of the hospital consisted of either sectors in use, albeit in advanced states of deterioration, or sectors which had been abandoned. In contrast, there were only a few sectors which had a good quality of infrastructure and service (for instance, the National Burns Centre).

Therefore, I decided to document that majority part of the hospital which is so symptomatic of the social and urban reality which travels right through the skin of this building. To show that which hurts to see, or perhaps that which we do not want to see: that deteriorating clinic which developed through time. The result of a slow and chronic sickness which this building has agonized. A hospital which is as, or even more, ill than those patients who are attended there.

While university authorities and politicians get involved in endless and unbending discussions about the need to bring the Hospital de Clinicas back to life, or the need to create a new model for attending to public health needs, the hospital itself continues to debate between life and death, waiting for a convalescence which may never arrive.

Finally, I would like to thank the medical students, doctors and hospital staff members who made an important contribution to the realisation of this piece of work.

© 2004, Daniel Machado

Montevideo - Uruguay

:d76@adinet.com.uy

Daniel Machado in the Hospital.