The Minister of Health, Caroline Cork, assured this Friday that talking about shortages in the country “does not correspond to reality”, although he did acknowledge that he is experiencing a “shortage of some medicines”something that, as he said, “is not a new issue”.
“It is an issue that has been going on for several years, even before the pandemic, with classic medicines, due to a price issue and a commercial issue (…) It is not a new issue, we have been at least since 2019″the minister explained at a press conference.
The portfolio manager Health added that it is not only a problem in Colombia, but worldwide, but that “it is very important that this has aroused the interest of the public opinionbecause even when it is not new, it is an issue that of course the health system has to take up”.
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scarcity has to do “With a problem that when there are changes like the one that occurred in the pandemic, the market is not capable of responding.”
Added to this is that “the response is very slow because the issue of medicines has been done in Colombia as a market issue and for the markets to work,” added Corcho, who alluded to a “excessive competition” in the Latin American country.
The information from the Ministry of Health comes after complaints received from patients who have criticized the lack of medicines after being treated by the Health Promotion Entities (EPS), which has led to guardianships by patients.
The CEO of the Colombian Association of Hospitals and Clinics (ACHC)Juan Carlos Giraldo Valencia, asked the Ministry of Health to investigate the causes of the shortage of supplies and medicines.
“The scarcity of inputs worries us because they are crucial for the proper provision of Hospital services, taking into account that the booking times reported by the institutions are short”, Giraldo Valencia assured.
monkey pox
The minister also referred to monkeypox, to give “important news” that “in the last week there has been a significant decrease in cases in Colombia and also in Latin America in incidence”.
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That assumes that “somehow we see a favorable response to allto educational campaign and the inspection measures of epidemiological surveillance”Cork celebrated.
Colombia detected until September 12, the date of the last report from the health authorities, 1,260 cases of monkeypox.
