During a summons this Thursday, May 9, the Minister of Health, Oscar Cordón, revealed that attention is being paid to fentanyl purchases within drug controls.
According to the official, the Ministry of Health is also investigating “organized structures” related to the procurement processes of medicines and supplies.
This statement comes in a context of hospital crisis due to shortages of medicines in the hospital network, which has led to poor care for patients and has led to constant complaints from doctors.
Minister Cordón attended the summons of the VOS bench to address the issue of shortages in the country’s hospitals.
While the meeting was taking place, an injunction from the Constitutional Court (CC) was announced, which urges the authorities to provide medical, surgical supplies and medications to the entire hospital network, especially to the San Juan de Dios Hospital, the Hospital Roosevelt and the Comprehensive Maternal and Child Care Center (CAIMI) of Ixcán, Quiché.
They monitor fentanyl purchases
In his statements about the acquisition of fentanyl, Cordón referred to the surveillance of purchases by the San Juan de Dios General Hospital and mentioned that the United States government is also interested in these transactions, especially in relation to chemical precursors which They are used in the production of fentanyl.
According to the official, in the case of the San Juan de Dios Hospital there are graphs that show specific peaks in fentanyl purchases throughout the year, which suggests a pattern of behavior.
“The American government is also interested in these contracts for chemical precursors. […] We even have graphs from General Hospital of fentanyl purchases with specific peaks in the year, so that as they say: ‘follow the money and you will find where the origin is.'”, Cordon explained.
“It is underway, it is not that we are not acting. The only thing is that yes, I am not going to deny that they are organized structures and have remained there for more than two decades, so we take one step and they take 10″he stated regarding the cases that are being investigated.
They will file complaints
César Conde, Vice Minister of Health Regulation, Surveillance and Control, stated that there are irregularities detected with the registration of medicines, which records have been blocked because they have seen “fraud” in the evaluation of the files.
In addition, he assured that two complaints have been made related to the work of the Department of Drug Regulation and there are three others in process.
“We have three more complaints pending for next week,” said Conde, although he did not specify the exact date. This is one of the complaints that the Health portfolio would be working to present at the end of May.
Cordón also referred to the “discretion” with which it has been detected that operations that are suspected of being fraudulent have been carried out.
“There is a well-ordered disorder there, from years, and it is not only there, it is also in the warehouses and warehouses,” stated about the inventory control system.
Another of the inconsistencies detected is that there are tools that have stopped being used because, apparently, there is no desire to make the processes transparent in the departments in charge of this work.
“There are tools that have been used for years and they themselves are going to block them. They themselves vote on the system and do the processes in Excel sheets when they should be using the tools,” described.
One of the deputies present in the room read one of the complaints in progress. Jairo Flores, congressman of the bench, stated: ““They are altering health records due to some special situation and here what can be intuited is that it is due to bribes or any type of circumstances.”he claimed.
Given these scenarios, the Health authorities indicated that the most immediate action to strengthen the regulatory mechanisms for the registration of medicines will be an agreement that the Ministry of Health will sign on May 17, 2024 with the Federal Commission for the Protection against Health Risks. (Cofepris).
“We are going to update the regulations and for that, fortunately, we are going to have the assistance of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris),” said Minister Cordón.
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