Minister Ximena Garzón explained that during the emergency stage 42 of the 123 prioritized items were awarded and the remaining 81 were left deserted.
“Together for health, Ecuador SOS”, “Health is a right, not a favor”, “Cancer patients demand medicine and dignified treatment that does not violate our rights” were part of the posters that exposed citizens suffering from catastrophic diseases in the exteriors of the National Assembly, located in front of the Eugenio Espejo hospital, in Quito, on the morning of this Wednesday, November 10.
There, the group of patients concentrated to demand the prompt supply of medicines to the country’s hospitals. In parallel, the Minister of Health was presented at the Commission of Transparency, Citizen Participation and Social Control with the purpose of expose the situation regarding the purchase of drugs. Given the problem that has dragged on from previous administrations, months ago the State portfolio declared the emergency, which lasted for 60 days, in the health system in order to speed up the procurement processes.
Paola Valencia, an oncology patient, asserted that she has been without medication in the Eugenio Espejo hospital for five months and that this can trigger a complex picture in her state of health. “I can become a quadriplegic, I have had a significant loss of weight, I have lost ten kilos,” he told Ecuavisa.
At the Assembly table, Garzón explained that during the health emergency stage, a total of 42 processes of the 123 prioritized items were awarded, and the remaining 81 were declared deserted. In those specified, an amount of 1,911,981.17 was awarded, which marked a reduction of the referential budget by 12,92 %.
“During that time (the two months that the emergency lasted) the processes (deserts) were relaunched, many of them. However, we did not have the number of offers. In many of them we had an offer, they did not give us the drugs that we needed for the country, the pharmaceutical companies said that they did not have the quantity that we needed or that they could not fulfill us within the designated period, ”he justified and specified that only in In the case of cancer treatment drugs, there were 20 processes declared deserted.
In all the processes, open calls were executed, without discretion, with fair prices, and the legality and transparency of the purchase procedures was guaranteed, the official said.
The acquired medications, according to Garzón’s exposition, are diversified between cancer (24%), antinfections and antibacterials (20%), sedation and analgesia (7%), transplants (6%), cardiac therapy (6%), arterial hypertension (6%), antithrombotic agents (5%) and treatment of chronic diseases (26%).
What’s more, The minister presented the proposed solutions to the supply processes of the hospitals and centers of the public health network, which includes a new model that would be applied with a reform to the regulation of the Organic Law of the Public Procurement System, which has already been submitted.
The new methodology proposes the acquisition of drugs with the outsourcing of pharmacies (only in external consultation), corporate electronic catalog-electronic reverse auction (intra-hospital purchases), institutional reverse auction (goods not available in the catalog), single supplier for drugs- special regime (not in catalog) and direct import.
Currently, the MSP found that they have on average around 62% of drug supply in the public network nationwidel. Once the proposed plan is implemented, the following year is expected to reach more than 85% in each unitGarzón said.
At the Assembly table, Diego Jimbo, from the National Agreement against Cancer, questioned on the time it will take to purchase drugs for patients with catastrophic illnesses if During the emergency declaration, it was not possible to buy all the necessary medicines in health homes.
Assemblywoman Nathalie Viteri insisted that the empty processes of medicines be expedited, especially for patients with catastrophic illnesses.
Given
During the current Government, the minister maintained that the Government has invested almost 400 million dollars in anti-COVID-19 vaccines. (I)
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