The outsourcing of outpatient pharmacies is progressing at different rates and now the political aspect is also taking its toll.
It began in mid-July and should be implemented in the hospitals of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS), Issfa and Isspol, as they are part of the comprehensive public health network.
César Juiña, 61, left the IESS Carlos Andrade Marín hospital and entered a pharmacy that is part of the outpatient pharmacy outsourcing plan to pick up an ointment.
In that health home he was treated in the specialty of dermatology.
He said that he has a periodic treatment with a cream and since the IESS does not have it, they sent him to remove it from that apothecary. It was the first time he did it.
“As long as there is medicine, it can be there (at the IESS) or it can be anywhere, but that it is close (…) it’s fine for me,” he said. The attention was fast.
More than 122,000 prescriptions have been filled through the Medicina Cerca plan
Enrique Yagchilema, 72, also withdrew a medication. He is a voluntary member.
“Right now there is a crowd in the hospital in a pharmacy (…) it is preferable, faster,” he said about the care in the private pharmacy.
He added that he has been undergoing dermatological treatment for two years and it was the first time he had been given a medication outside the IESS.
Of the six pharmacies around the HCAM, in the north center of Quito, only one has the sign of the plan.
Fernando Carrera, 62, was leaving one of the pharmacies that are not part of the government initiative.
He mentioned that about four years ago they did receive 100% of the drugs for his father, but now, he added, 10% of the prescription. You have a lung problem. He estimates spending between $200 to $300 a month for various illnesses.
According to the Minister of Health, José Ruales, outsourcing is one of the five mechanisms used to provide medicines to the population.
Drugs that are not in an electronic catalog are part of outsourcing.
Ruales maintained that in some hospitals there will be 30, in others 60, 15, as an example, since it depends on hospital capacity.
Therefore, he indicated, the government project is applied in phases.
The Medicina Cerca plan goes to other points, but there are still patients who are unaware of it and there is still a lack of some drugs
Currently, he indicated, they are signing agreements with pharmacy chains for the following phases and 2023.
Some medicines are delivered in the hospital and others in private pharmacies with an electronic prescription.
In phase 1 there were six hospitals, the same as in phase 2.
In recent days, the hospitals Baca Ortiz, from Quito, from Playas in the province of Guayas, and Isidro Ayora, from Loja, and Luz Elena Arismendi, from Quito, Riobamba and Machala, have joined this strategy.
A supplier is still being sought for the Santa Cruz hospital in the Galapagos.
Between February and March 2023, the implementation of the project within the MSP will end.
The biggest problem they have encountered, he explained, is the computer system because that State portfolio, in its hospitals, has clinical histories and different methods, which it seeks to integrate.
This, because they have to adapt to the electronic prescription, while in the health centers where it will be implemented from January 2023 they already have a single clinical history model.
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About how outsourcing is progressing in the IESS, Issfa and Isspol, Ruales mentioned that they are working with them and even transferring the technology, as well as the electronic medical record model to the last two institutions.
He added that the Issfa and the Isspol are joining the system and the IESS was doing it until the problem of the integration of the Board of Directors appeared.
The official mentioned that in order to sign the contracts he must go through that instance.
“The IESS has informed us that they cannot move forward with the signing and agreements due to the lack of capacity to assemble the Board of Directors…”, he added.
This is because there is a dispute over the workers’ delegate. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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