2023-07-14 18:15:58
03:02 PM
The health reform, one of the projects most defended by President Gustavo Petro, became one of the most controversial points of his Government, in addition to being the most criticized and most hurdles in Congress. For this reason, in order to understand the seriousness of the matter, spaces for debate have arisen among academics, experts from the health sector and political personalities who have been at the forefront of the situation. One of the most recent was the forum “Health reform in Colombia, for everyone?”, organized by EL COLOMBIANO and which took place this Friday around 9:00 am
The space that was intended to carry out a regional and national reading on the subject, had the participation of important and well-known figures from the sector. For example, the second block, moderated by the director of the Antioquia newspaper, Luz María Sierra, was attended by Senator Norma Hurtado, Senator Martha Peralta, former Health Minister Fernando Ruiz, the manager of the Angiosur Clinic, Santiago Correa, and Luis Gonzalo Morales, former manager Savia Salud.
One of the opinions that stood out the most during the meeting was that of the former head of the Health portfolio, Fernando Ruiz, who began his speech by warning that the panorama in terms of Health was not going well and that there was no doubt that the country is going through a moment crucial in all respects. In addition, he warned about the critical situation in the sector. “Never has the health sector been in such an absolutely critical situation as it is now,” he said.
Although he explained that it is true that the crisis has been going on since 2007-2008, he emphasized that recently what has happened is that this crisis, instead of finding a way out, has been damming and feeding more and more. In this context, for the former minister, it is clear that the Petro Government has not won the battle, on the contrary, the outlook is darker than it seems.
“It is an absolute uncertainty,” said Ruiz, who added that in reality everyone was hoping that the government would at least have the opinion of those who have been at the forefront of this crisis in previous governments, to open a space for dialogue, but not It was like this. And he pointed out that the political task has not been carried out judiciously either.
In this sense, the most worrying thing for the ex-minister is not even the way in which the debate is taking place around the controversial articles, but the way in which the final and recent text that was presented to Congress was constructed because “that text is impossible to fix, it’s an incomplete patchwork quilt, it’s a Frankenstein, it really is impossible to fix. There are so many ambiguities, contradictions, duplications within that text, that it is impossible”.
Faced with this alarming panorama, for the former minister there are only two options. On the one hand, it is that they pass the reform to “desks” in Congress and that it is the Senate that finally decides. While the other way out is that it eventually crashes, which leads to another problem: What’s going to happen in the meantime?
The truth is that the Government aimed to have its reform ready and approved by March or April of the current year, however, that did not happen, which for the minister was a clear strategic error.
What’s next for the health sector?
During his speech, the former minister also spoke about the current realities and needs of the health sector. He pointed out that the system in Colombia has actually been good because “with few resources it has managed to provide coverage and quality of services in the face of very growing needs”, but it continues to be a very fragile system.
“From a financial point of view, our system is terribly sensitive. Any limitation in financing affects him and hits him immediately,” said Ruiz, criticizing that in a certain way the current government tries to cover up the real problems of a health system like Colombia’s.
“They say that there is nothing here, that there are no problems, but without a number, without any data behind it. We are incubating a crisis situation that is going to blow up in our faces in the coming months, ”she declared.
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