The governor of Sucre, Héctor Olimpo Espinosa, and the Ministry of Health are embroiled in controversy over a proposal to restructure the department’s hospital network.
Espinosa wanted to create a new State Social Enterprise (ESE), commonly known as a public hospital. This new hospital center was going to have the name of ESE Universitaria de Sucre Unis and sought to integrate four public hospitals in Sincelejo, Corozal, San Marcos and Betulia.
With this, Espinosa intended to clean up the debts of the region’s health sector and pay the health professionals to whom they owed money. But the decision could also imply the liquidation of several public hospitals, something that several workers did not like and went against the guidelines of the Presidency. President Gustavo Petro himself has said that public hospitals should not be liquidated during his term.
Well, the Ministry of Health notified the governor that his project was not viable and cut short his plans for 2023. The president then expressed his disagreement through various regional media outlets and his social networks.
“There are families that have been ruined, they have died without receiving a penny for their work. We want to pay them and respect their labor rights, but the Ministry of Health is strongly opposed and does not give us a solution either “, wrote the governor through his Twitter account. And he tagged President Petro in his trill.
The statements did not go down well with the Health portfolio, which had just sent a statement in which it expressed its annoyance with the governor.
“The entity (the Ministry of Health) does not share the statements recently made by the governor of Sucre, Héctor Olimpo Espinosa, in which he suggests that the Ministry of Health has restricted the autonomy of his department to make decisions and, therefore, Sucre’s constitutional and legal mandate regarding the liquidation of four State Social Enterprises and the start-up of a new one in this region of the country,” the Ministry of Health asserted through the statement.
As indicated by that ministerial portfolio, the statements were made by the governor through the Informative of Sucrea regional medium, this December 20.
They argued that the Ministry of Health is the governing body of the health sector in Colombia. This gives it the power to make decisions regarding what happens with the hospital networks of the departments. And they indicated that they have met in multiple technical tables with representatives of the Government, hospital unions and the Superintendency of Health.
The ministerial portfolio warned that the Government did not propose a viable project to restructure the public hospital network.
“Despite the repeated observations and comments, in which the difficulties of the ESCO liquidation project and its non-technical or financial viability were reported, the Department –To the date– He has not submitted any other proposals.indicated the Ministry of Health.
In addition, they warned that the governor’s project could put “at risk the guarantee of the right to health and the provision of comprehensive, continuous, and quality services to the population of the department of Sucre.”
Therefore, that entity expressed its “concern” about the statements made by the governor. But he assured that he is open to dialogue to structure a new plan that allows reviewing “the range of alternatives” to solve the health problems that the department has. With this, they indicated that they hope to guarantee the rights of patients and health sector workers who work in the Sucre hospital network.