The Health Secretary shall Search and deliver all payment orders and contracts who has signed the agency to acquire the drug pembrolizumab (keytruda), used for cancer treatment, during 2018 and 2019, in which the cost of each one of them, how many were acquired in that period by each of the health institutions that supply them and to which companies.
This was instructed by the full National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) When analyzing a review appeal filed against the federal agency, which reported non-existence of the information and suggested the applicant ask the hospitals directly or search on CompraNet.
Commissioner Joel Salas presented the case to INAI and proposed to revoke the response, as the applicant argued that there was no legal certainty that an exhaustive search was made within the Ministry of Health to deliver what was required.
In its initial response, the Secretariat informed that to know the data related to the federal reference hospitals and the centralized federal hospitals, it was necessary to consult CompraNet directly.
In addition, he pointed out that decentralized hospitals have their own Transparency Unit, which is why he granted the electronic links of the official pages of the General Hospital of Mexico Doctor Eduardo Liceaga, of the General Hospital Doctor Manuel Gea González and the Hospital Juárez de México.
He also said that the Women’s Hospital, the Juárez Centro Hospital and the National Homeopathic Hospital had not located a record of the acquisition of the two medicines, while the General Directorate of Material Resources and General Services of the agency had also reported the absence of the information.
Commissioner Salas explained that the relevance of the case becomes relevant for the protest demonstrations of January 23 when parents demonstrated at the Mexico City International Airport to protest the lack of medications in public hospitals for the treatment of their daughters and sons with cancer.
He said that in the analysis of the case it was detected that the Unit of Transparency of the unit was failing to take the request to other administrative units that could be competent to have such information, and that the orientation to consult the CompraNet System did not proceed because Indications were provided to find the information of interest.
He also stressed that in the application, the name of the medication was incorrect and the agency did not correct it in their response, Therefore, the search criteria implemented by the General Directorate of Material Resources and General Services, the Women’s Hospital and the Juárez Centro Hospital are not certain.
Salas said that in the context of shortage of medications and the transition to a public policy of total free medicine and medical attention, requests for information related to this topic are likely to increase.
“Given the reform of the health system undertaken by the current federal administration and to which state authorities can join, it is highly likely that the demand for information will still grow. This Institute must ensure that this demand for information is fully and timely addressed.The right of access, as we have said repeatedly, is a key right that can help people to be effective a fundamental right such as the right to health, ”he said.
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