An investigation was opened at the Carlos Andrade Marín Hospital. They estimate losses amounting to 2.5 million dollars.
The Attorney General’s Office of Ecuador (FGE) opened an investigation this Thursday after the discovery of lots of expired medicines and medical supplies in the warehouses of the Carlos Andrade Marín Hospital, which belongs to the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS).
In a message disseminated through the social network Twitter, the Prosecutor’s Office specified that “it continues to carry out the proceedings in the facilities of the Carlos Andrade Marín Hospital of the IESS, in Quito” and announced that “seven other previous investigations are still open for this topic”.
Interviewed by local media, the hospital manager, Darío Mora, revealed that the losses due to expired drugs are estimated at 2.5 million dollars, which remained in hundreds of boxes found on Wednesday, inside which paracetamol or treatments for patients with diseases such as HIV and cancer.
The warehouses where the medical supplies were kept do not meet the storage and lighting standards. The control to enter them is deficient and they do not have surveillance cameras to protect the stock of medicines, valued in its entirety at 70 million dollars.
In the middle of this month, the IESS announced that at least ten hospitals in the country lost 5.7 million dollars in expired medicines, and the largest expense corresponds to the Carlos Andrade Marín Hospital.
After learning of the event, the National Anticorruption Commission (CNA) urgently requested a comprehensive audit of the hospital, claiming that what happened “seriously affects patients and generates financial damage to the Institution.”
In July 2019, the Attorney General’s Office opened a preliminary investigation for the crime of alleged embezzlement for 6.5 million dollars after the discovery of 1,904 batches of supplies and 114 batches of expired drugs in the warehouses of this hospital institution.
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