By The Star Staff
The organizing committee of Puerto Rican Week 2023 in New York announced Sunday that everything is ready for the June 9 health services event as part of the week’s activities.
“For the first time, there will be a conversation with the leaders of the Puerto Rico health system, which ranges from the provision of outpatient medical services, hospitals, mental health services, ambulance service and analysis of prevention campaigns for drivers and pedestrians,” said Wilson Nazario, coordinator of the discussion and executive director of CROEM ALUMNI. “Likewise, the discussion includes the vision of the Legislature and the municipalities that are affected by the operation of the government’s health card. Finally, the private sector represented by the president of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce will speak on the situation of employers in the face of the high cost of medical services in Puerto Rico.”
The event will bring together the assistant secretary for health affairs of the U.S. Department of Defense, Maj. Gen. Dr. Lester Martínez López; Puerto Rico Health Secretary Dr. Carlos Mellado López; Physicians and Surgeons Association of Puerto Rico President Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez; the head of the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration, Dr. Carlos Rodríguez Mateo; Traffic Safety Commission Director Luis Rodríguez Díaz, the president of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce President Cameron McKenzie; United Retailers Center of Puerto Rico board member Sheila D. Otero; Puerto Rico Senate President José Luis Dalmau Santiago and Speaker of the House of Representatives Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez; Puerto Rico Mayors Association President Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz; and Asiris Rodríguez, the representative of the ambulance industry in Puerto Rico.
The event will be hosted by La Casa de la Herencia Cultural Puertorriqueña Inc., known as El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109 located at 215 East 99 Street, Suite 18 in New York.
“A group of political leaders and elected officials from New York have been invited to the event to represent the ‘Puerto Rican’ diaspora residents of that city,” Nazario said. “The New York team will be composed of municipal councilors Diana Ayala (NY District 8) and Rafael Salamanca Jr. (District 17), along with state senators Luis R. Sepúlveda (District 32) and José Serrano Jr. (District 29), along with representation from the city of Paterson, New Jersey headed by the municipal councilor of the Fifth Ward, Luis Vélez.”