A new case of charges to staff of the Ministry of Health Due to the expiration of vaccines against the coronavirus, it was announced this Thursday, April 21, after the internal audit of the portfolio wants six workers from the Escuintla Health Area to pay Q132 thousand for biologicals that expired or were not used in the stipulated time. .
That day a summons was scheduled for those affected with authorities from the Ministry of Health, with deputy Aldo Dávila, to discuss the issue, but said authorities were not present.
–
It was there that the new case was made known, which involves six employees of Salud de Escuintlathat together they should pay Q132 for said expired vaccines.
Sandra Mazariegos, a nursing graduate who works in the Escuintla Health Area, reported that the internal audit came to investigate the expiration of two types of vaccines, the Pfizer and the Sputnik V.
He commented that the first ones were damaged due to the thawing date, because they only had a month to be used after leaving the National Biological Center, while the Sputnik V reached the expiration date.
Mazariegos explained that one of the issues they attributed in the audit search was that she and six other people were guilty, because no effort was made to place the biologicals.
They have to pay Q132 thousand
In addition, she is indicated in the case “the director of the Health Area, the financial administrative manager, the director of the Health Center, the nurse who voluntarily covered the vacations, because the places are frozen, Dr. Maribel Godoy, director of the Health District, and an outpatient nurse, which is by contract,” he said.
He pointed out that the audit wants the six people to cancel Q132 thousand for expired vaccines in that department.
“Nobody from outside can come to measure that, if they haven’t walked and been with us,” nurse Mazariegos told reporters.
Mazariegos also commented that the National Vaccination Plan already has several addenda, because they are changing the process along the way, and that although it is understood that this must happen due to how the disease is developing, he acknowledges that this was one of the reasons that have made vaccination difficult.
“At first it had been said that Pfizer was not a vaccine for the general population and then they changed to yes and that could have been one of the causes – that people did not get vaccinated – but that is not taken into account by the audit,” he complained.
He referred that, in the case of Sputnik V, people refuse to receive this biological, and that since vaccination is not mandatory they cannot do anything.
He added that people prefer to be immunized with other brands and not with Sputnik V and that is why they have expired.
“That situation was the one that the audit found, but for them it is not valid, it is only valid if the vaccine is lost, it is paid for,” said Mazariegos.
I was on vacation
He commented that in Escuintla they were affected, because despite making their defenses, with documents, as he mentioned, always who pays for the vaccines.
“I was on vacation and how can they blame me for something, if I was disabled, not only because it is a labor right, but I left because I felt bad, exhausted and sick,” said the nurse.
Mazariegos added that she thought that the fact that she had been on vacation when the events occurred was going to keep her away from that situation, but that was not the case.
Nurses denounce, in a summons with deputy Aldo Dávila, that they want to charge them for expired vaccines in Escuintla. (Free Press Photo: Carlos Hernández)
” data-image-caption=”
Nurses denounce, in a summons with deputy Aldo Dávila, that they want to charge them for expired vaccines in Escuintla. (Free Press Photo: Carlos Hernández)
” data-medium-file=”https://www.prensalibre.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/enfermeras.jpg?quality=52&w=300″ data-large-file=”https://www.prensalibre.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/enfermeras.jpg?quality=52&w=1024″ class=”wp-image-11852556 size-full” alt=””/>
The case of the nurse in Sololá
This Thursday, Castro also attended the summons to find out how his process is going, but the health authorities did not attend.
She commented that what they were informed last Tuesday was that the procedure that determined that she should pay that amount of money was not done properly and that it had to be done again.
“In the end, the Health authorities announced that it was an administrative error, because what the audit wanted was for the discharge documents to be presented, but they were not presented, final decisions were made and several steps of the process were skipped and now what they want is to do it again to consider the documents and the times, since to present the disappearance of findings, people have 10 days to present their defenses and they gave me 5 hours,” Castro said.
Position of the Minister of Health
The Minister of Health, Francisco Comawas approached by journalists in an activity, and was asked about the collection that is intended to be made for expired vaccines from portfolio employees.
He stated that there is a procedure that establishes the amount of vaccine losses and that there is no instruction to collect biologicals.
Also read: Municipalities on red alert decrease, only 5% are with maximum restrictions
“Health personnel cannot be asked to pay for vaccines that have substantial differences, they are vaccines with an average life of three months. Second, this staff is dedicated to serving the population and getting vaccinated, neither the health staff nor the ministry have control over those people who do not want to be vaccinated,” said Coma.
He emphasized that the situation is different “when there has been a problem in the management of vaccines, where there has been laziness, recklessness, and I don’t know exactly what the case of Escuintla is, I’m going to ask,” Coma said.
He added that his position as minister is that no one has to be responsible for the payment of an expired vaccine, especially when the conditions of whether or not it is put are not in the control of the people of Health.
It may interest you: Children spend less time studying to support household chores
He denied that there is any instruction for the legal team to proceed against these people for expired vaccines, but he mentioned that the ministry is subject to audit and control systems and that there are entities that are the watchdogs that compliance, notification and lifting of the certificates with the amount of expired vaccines, but that does not mean that there is a collection action.
Lag in regulations
Coma recognized that Health is lagging from the perspective of standards, organizational structure, in systems to make this type of decision and said that the pandemic has also revealed administrative deficiencies and that is why now is an opportunity to improve.
He pointed out that they want to update the Internal Organic Regulation and review other current agreements and now has a commitment to make a regulation that breaks the bureaucracy, but that adheres to transparency.
–
