The National Alliance for Health (ANS) announced that it will be vigilant of the process and if this is the case, it will again carry out protests in the streets.
The Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) will have a 80% supply of medicines in their hospitals up to end of the year.
This is how the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Francisco Cepeda, in his appearance before the Health Commission of the National Assembly, this Wednesday.
According to him, two months ago the supply level was 47% and 64% availability, while to date it is 60%.
He indicated that in the Teodoro Maldonado hospital, in Guayaquil, the availability is 60%; in the José Carrasco hospital in Cuenca, 68%; in the IESS Quito Sur hospital, 83% and in Los Ceibos, in Guayaquil, 85%, where a purchase has been made by auction for very small amounts.
He added that there is a centralized problem in the Carlos Andrade Marín hospital, in Quito, where it is 28%.
“We have had difficulties in purchasing because we have to go through the electronic catalog of Sercop (National Public Procurement Service) and this electronic catalog should have 780 medications and currently has 127 (…), the purchase falls because there is no electronic catalog, finally the purchase cannot be made ”, he explained.
The MSP and the IESS announce massive purchase of medicines to solve the shortage before the end of the year
For this supply, which will be done jointly with the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), Cepeda indicated that a special regime what are purchases through public entities or EP.
“For instance, universities can buy all kinds of medicines from distributors, pharmaceutical companies, etc., and we can buy from them en bloc, without having to go through the issue of the Sercop catalog (…). We have already used it in small quantities, but now it is going to be a large purchase, a centralized purchase ”, he added.
That initiative was questioned by some legislators. Luisa González (UNES) was surprised at the idea what he mentioned is buy from “third parties”. In their opinion, what should be done is to talk with Sercop and ask that the medicines be included. “What does a university have to do with the health system?” González wondered.
Cepeda added that they will modifications to Decree 1033 so that from 2022 the purchases of medicines are centralized.
The official announced that the Dec. 18 there will be medicine to treat diseases like muscular dystrophy.
The head of the IESS added that the problem it will be very focused in certain types of drugs and diseases that cannot be included in that consolidated acquisition; he did not detail which ones.
Rafael Palacios, from Association of Parents of Children and Adolescents with Cancer, called the government announcement “Pure speech”, because they have made previous announcements and indicated that this association should be a watchdog of the purchasing processes.
For Palacios it is impossible that in a month They can acquire the drugs because they are processes that do not happen overnight.
He also assured that they will make a general purchase of medicines but not of oncological specialties.
The Government declared a focused emergency for hospitals of the Ministry of Public Health, but could not acquire all the medicines
For the National Alliance for Health (ANS), that groups 33 organizations, although the authorities have not specified the amount they have offered them until December 24 the drugs will be purchased which will include catastrophic, rare and orphan diseases.
Gustavo Dávila, who is part of the ANS, pointed out that will be pending and if they must return to the streets to protest, they will do so, as happened last week, when they held sit-ins outside several hospitals.
To that legislative table it was also the Minister of Health, Ximena Garzón, who, due to being hoarse, could not make his presentation. It will be called for the next few days.
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