Cuenca Just Opened Its First Hospital Outside the City — And It's in El Valle

A Hospital Where There Wasn't One

If you live in El Valle, Santa Ana, Paccha, Nulti, Turi, or Quingeo — or if you've ever needed medical care outside of Cuenca's city center — this is significant news.

The Hospital Municipal de El Valle officially opened on February 1, 2026. It's the first municipal hospital Cuenca has built outside the urban core, and it fills a healthcare gap that has existed for decades in the southern parishes.

The numbers: $8 million investment, three stories, 31 medical specialties, and a first-year target of 90,000 patient visits.

What's Inside

This isn't a clinic with a couple of doctors. It's a full-service hospital:

Ground Floor:

• Admissions and social services
• Outpatient consultation
• Childcare services
• Imaging and radiology
• Laboratory
• 24/7 Emergency department

Upper Floors:

• Hospitalization wards
• Surgical center
• Obstetrics and maternity
• Intermediate care
• Neonatology
• Administration

On opening day, the hospital handled 154 general consultations and 32 emergency patients. The first cesarean birth was performed that same day.

Who It Serves

The hospital's primary coverage area includes six parishes with a combined population of roughly 78,235 residents:

• El Valle (the largest parish south of the city)
• Santa Ana
• Quingeo
• Paccha
• Nulti
• Turi

Referral coverage extends to Tarqui, San Bartolomé (Sígsig canton), and Zhidmad (Gualaceo) — meaning the hospital could serve well over 100,000 people.

If you're an expat living in any of these areas — and many do, especially in El Valle, Turi, and Santa Ana — you now have a hospital within 15 minutes instead of relying solely on facilities in the city center.

Where It Is

The hospital is in the Guncay sector of El Valle parish, approximately 2 km from El Valle's urban center and about 15 minutes by car from central Cuenca.

Cost

• $10 general public
• $9 with health card

These are consultation fees — not per-service charges. Emergency care is available 24/7.

Why This Matters

Cuenca's main public hospital — Hospital Vicente Corral Moscoso — is under severe budget pressure (more on that in our separate article today). It serves 700-1,000 outpatient visits daily with 98% bed occupancy. Having a new facility that can absorb patients from the southern parishes takes real pressure off the system.

More importantly, for the thousands of people (including many expats) who live in Cuenca's rural parishes, getting emergency care no longer means a potentially dangerous drive through traffic to the city center. Time matters in emergencies.

Mayor Cristian Zamora at the inauguration: "Today El Valle has a hospital that saves time, saves lives, and restores hope to thousands of families."

The Bigger Picture

This is the same municipal government that just launched Cuenca's Climate Action Plan and is investing in electric buses. Whether you agree with all of Zamora's priorities or not, the El Valle hospital is a concrete deliverable — built in 12 months, opened on schedule, and already seeing patients.

For expats in the southern parishes, bookmark this one. You now have a hospital.

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Sources: El Mercurio, GAD Municipal de Cuenca, Radio Pichincha