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Because the governor wouldn't need the Red Cross

Tijuana healthcare provider lays off employees, gasoline bill looms

Tijuana's Red Cross, which operates a "pay if you're able" trauma center/hospital and a citywide fleet of ambulances, has laid off 16 employees in an attempt to survive a major financial crisis.

A cutoff in funding by state government and a downturn in donations from the public have combined to create a $3 million peso shortfall (about $230,800) for the current year, Carlos Rubio Arreola, president of the Red Cross' board of trustees, told a recent meeting of the Tijuana civic club Grupo Madrugadores.

As a consequence, Rubio told the group, 16 Red Cross employees lost their jobs — 3 first-aid workers, 3 "hospital employees," and 10 administrative staff members, according to an October 10 account of the meeting in El Sol de Tijuana.

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The personnel cuts were determined to be the best way for the Red Cross to continue operations without lessening services to the public, Rubio said.

The Red Cross is a major source of health care in Tijuana. Its 21-bed hospital includes eight emergency-room beds, a six-bed ICU, and three operating rooms. According to its website, the organization handles 60 percent of all trauma calls in the city. Last year, a fleet of Red Cross ambulances based in eight stations across the city answered more than 37,000 calls for service. There is no charge for ambulance service.

Now, said Rubio, some of those ambulances may be sidetracked if the Red Cross doesn't find the money to buy gasoline for them.

So far this year, Rubio said, the Red Cross has attended to 21,000 patients, answered 29,000 calls for ambulance service, and had 700 hospitalizations.

Rubio told members of Grupo Madrugadores that in recent weeks he has repeatedly asked for a meeting with Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega to discuss the urgency of the Red Cross' situation since no state funding has been forthcoming as in previous years. So far, he said, the governor's staff has told him that Vega's agenda has been too full to permit such a meeting.

(headlines corrected 10/14, 3 p.m.)

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Tijuana's Red Cross, which operates a "pay if you're able" trauma center/hospital and a citywide fleet of ambulances, has laid off 16 employees in an attempt to survive a major financial crisis.

A cutoff in funding by state government and a downturn in donations from the public have combined to create a $3 million peso shortfall (about $230,800) for the current year, Carlos Rubio Arreola, president of the Red Cross' board of trustees, told a recent meeting of the Tijuana civic club Grupo Madrugadores.

As a consequence, Rubio told the group, 16 Red Cross employees lost their jobs — 3 first-aid workers, 3 "hospital employees," and 10 administrative staff members, according to an October 10 account of the meeting in El Sol de Tijuana.

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The personnel cuts were determined to be the best way for the Red Cross to continue operations without lessening services to the public, Rubio said.

The Red Cross is a major source of health care in Tijuana. Its 21-bed hospital includes eight emergency-room beds, a six-bed ICU, and three operating rooms. According to its website, the organization handles 60 percent of all trauma calls in the city. Last year, a fleet of Red Cross ambulances based in eight stations across the city answered more than 37,000 calls for service. There is no charge for ambulance service.

Now, said Rubio, some of those ambulances may be sidetracked if the Red Cross doesn't find the money to buy gasoline for them.

So far this year, Rubio said, the Red Cross has attended to 21,000 patients, answered 29,000 calls for ambulance service, and had 700 hospitalizations.

Rubio told members of Grupo Madrugadores that in recent weeks he has repeatedly asked for a meeting with Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega to discuss the urgency of the Red Cross' situation since no state funding has been forthcoming as in previous years. So far, he said, the governor's staff has told him that Vega's agenda has been too full to permit such a meeting.

(headlines corrected 10/14, 3 p.m.)

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