Due to “management adjustment”, ASSE stopped hiring transfers at dawn and on weekends

The decision was communicated by the ASSE regional directors to hospitals and health centers in the last days of February, according to messages to which he accessed The Observer.

One of them is from the director of the South Region, Blauco Rodríguez, who sent a statement to the directors of the executing units with seven points in which he informs that “specialized transfers are made from Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.” although “anyway will be tried with own fleet carry them out at night and weekends”.

Hospitals will not be able to hire transfers on weekends

The statement also states that social transfers – when locomotion is provided to patients who need to go to the hospital – will be carried out from Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and that “must be requested 5 days in advance”.

The transfers of patients with chronic dialysis will continue “as up to now”, although “more requests for transfers of new patients for dialysis” will not be taken.

The measure will not affect the transfers that were already coordinated, nor the cars hired for family doctors of the RAP Canelones nor the transfers requested by Hospital Maciel since it has an agreement with ASSE.

The director of the Emergency Medical Care System (SAME 105), José Antonio Rodríguez, told The Observer that the decision was due to a “management adjustment” given that they expect that from this month there will be a “drop in demand”.

The hierarch pointed out that SAME 105 has 36 ambulances for specialized transfers operating throughout the countryof which 18 are in the metropolitan area.

According to Rodríguez, ASSE hired other 13 specialized ambulances for 24 hours and now it will do so for 12 hours.

At the same time, he pointed out that due to improvements in the BPS certification system, the hiring of doctors, nurses, and drivers was cancelled.

Questioned hires and cuts

The decision to restrict hiring comes at a time when leaders of the Broad Front have been denouncing ASSE’s preference for the ITHG transportation company, something denied by the agency’s authorities.

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The SAME 105 says that they are “management settings”

This company invoiced SAME 105 for more than $500 million for almost 40,000 medical transfers between June 2021 and October 2022, despite the fact that It is not registered with the MSP nor does it have the corresponding qualificationsas reported by Search.

Seeking to regularize the situation, ASSE launched a tender to hire specialized transfers that was appealed by the Emergency Chamber. After this, the agency promised to make changes to the requirements of the specification, which is scheduled to open on March 20.

The restriction of hiring as of March has already caused changes in ITHG and companies that it subcontracts such as Solidar, which provides it with medical guards, telephone personnel, mobile phones, crewed mobile phones, stretcher-bearers and doctors.

Indeed, the director of Solidar, Gustavo Guidobono, sent a message to his partners in which he pointed out that the “eroding action” of the Mobile Emergency Chamber put the management of SAME 105 and its “permanent growth” in the “lightweight”.

There he points out that ASSE capped the monthly expense that SAME 105 can pay them at 50% of the budget as of December 2022 and made it difficult to pay outstanding debts for 2022 planned with the 2023 budget.

This situation, he said, forced them to make certain cuts that he hoped would be transitory.

In this sense, he announced that they were suspending the night shift (going to work from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and the services on Saturdays and Sundays. “We lowered the number of mobiles from 500 to 13 working 12 hours a day. We suspend the 700 service to Rap, leaving the Montevideo service from Monday to Friday during daytime hours. We suspend medical, nursing and driver coverage, ”he added.