Patients with catastrophic illnesses protested again for lack of care and medication in Ecuador

The Ombudsman’s Office will initiate proceedings against the authorities in charge of this problem.

The Ombudsman, Freddy Viejó, announced that a defense file will be opened for the omissions against the officials responsible for the Ministry of Public Health and the directorate of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security so that they appear before the Ombudsman’s Office and explain the lack of medicines to patients with catastrophic illnesses.

The lack of medicines in the Public Health and Social Security systems, which deepened during the emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic, caused the Government to declare the country’s 135 public hospitals in an emergency on August 11, 2021; however, this has not given the expected results and in some health homes shortages continue to be a serious problem.

The case of people suffering from a catastrophic illness is even more delicate, since their medicines cost more than USD 300 in some cases. Due to this, the Ministry of Health proposed the acquisition of 123 medicines destined to treat serious, rare, orphan and catastrophic diseases; however, it was only possible to acquire 42 types of medicines and an amount of USD 2 million was allocated for this purpose.

The patients assured that they are tired of hearing offers and promises from the health authorities, since on November 30, 2021 an agreement was reached with the ministry to provide a solution to the shortage in the IESS and the national health system. , but to date they have not received their medicines and they assure that even some patients have already died due to lack of medicines.

At the end of last January, the Minister of Health, Ximena Garzón, announced that a shipment of medicines would arrive for patients with rare, orphan and catastrophic diseases, along with group L medicines, which include oncology, immunosuppressants, among others.

However, this shipment has not yet arrived and patients have had to purchase the medicines on their own, despite the fact that this implies an unsustainable expense for their pockets.