Angel Valdes | June 26, 2023
Faced with the crisis of drug shortages in the Social Security Fund (CSS), the presidential candidate of the Popular Party (PP), Martín Torrijos Espino, assured that, if he wins the elections next year, he will create the National Medicines Agency because the Panamanian people can’t stand the “there is no” anymore.
“We are going to implement a different formula to solve the high cost of medicines and shortages, for which we propose that the National Medicines Agency buy based on all the medicine needs that the State will have, and with this, we are going to guarantee the supply and a good price”, explained the former president.
In statements to the media in the capital city and in the interior of the country, Torrijos Espino affirmed that with this new entity the game between distributors and bad practices within State institutions will end, and thus a well-supplied health system will be guaranteed. medicines at fair prices, in addition to avoiding this game that not only depletes the country, but also makes life very difficult for Panamanian families to improve their health.
He added that the state entity will acquire medicines for the Social Security Fund (CSS), the Ministry of Health (Minsa) and all patronages. “If we have that purchasing power, we can use it; there are distributors, but there is also the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and mechanisms to buy at fair costs for all Panamanians”, he added.
To do this, said the former president of the Republic, the current scheme must be broken, since nothing prevents joint purchases from being made. He called attention to the fact that despite the fact that the Executive has a table to deal with the issue, there is a dispersion in the drug purchasing system; There are no products and the high cost persists, because they use sales prices that are not adequate.
Also on the subject of health, the presidential candidate has promised to put polyclinics and health centers to work on weekends. “It can’t be that people get sick and have nowhere to go at night; it is not fair that they suffer and spend money in private clinics; We are going to fix the health system so that it is much more humane, there must be a true organization between the health systems ”, he said.
He also described the treatment received by patients at the National Cancer Institute (ION) as inhumane, for which reason “I promise to build a new hospital in the interior of the country to alleviate the congestion of the Cancer Hospital.”
To do this, Torrijos Espino states on his social networks, “I will ensure viable and financed projects, avoiding empty promises and delays due to disputes between construction companies. It is time to build a new institutional framework for a Panama with resources and an equitable health system. “
