The president of the State Health Services Administration (ASSE), Leonard Ciprianiassured this Thursday that he is adisposed to privatize the sale of medicines in the state provider in case the delays in drug deliveries in some parts of the country are not resolved.
Speaking to the Diamante FM program Who’s Who, Cipriani explained that delays of up to 15 days have been detected in the delivery of medicines in some towns in the interior, something that represents a “problem” based on “some type of disability in the organization” that for the president of ASSE “must be corrected”.
If this does not happen, Cipriani said that ASSE will arrange the outsourcing of the distribution or, where appropriate, of the pharmacies that dispense the medicines in the state provider. In this sense, the chief explained that he will do it in “whatever is wrong”, although he stressed that the most important problems have been found at the distribution level and that in the dispensing places “everyone works well”.
To exemplify how positive this measure would be if applied, Cipriani said that a private drugstore delivers contraceptives according to the policies implemented by the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) and that this is “the only drug that is never lacking inside “. The president of ASSE then stated that “the important thing is the patient” and that he receives the medications.
The hierarch also took advantage of the occasion to defend the management carried out in ASSE and criticize previous administrations. Thus, he said that the medication guideline has been increased by 16% since the arrival of the new government in 2020 and stressed that the management of drug purchases was corrected. “Before, money was not invested in medicines and it was bought badly, after three years, when we all know that prices vary very quickly,” justified the president of the organization.
Clientelism and “professionalization”
“I want to end patronage in health,” Cipriani said last year in the Health Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and this Thursday ratified that same expression. The hierarch recognized in Who’s Who that “unfortunately” due to the size and characteristics of institutions such as ASSE there is fertile ground for situations of this type to occur, something that is “very old” in the State provider.
In this sense, Cipriani stressed that the patient “cannot be held hostage” and remarked that his administration is beginning a process of “professionalization” of the organization.
