Compliance practices, life or death in the health sector


The regulations to protect health risks in establishments in the health sector, public, private or social, is and must be one of the strictest and most far-sighted, since two of the protected legal rights that we most value as people depend on it, which are health and safety. life itself.

In recent times, in terms of health, various crises have been observed in our country, from the management of the Covid pandemic and the controversies over the approval of some vaccines and the use of certain drugs for their control, to the shortage of medicines. in the public sector with an emphasis on treatments for critical illnesses such as cancer and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

These failures in the system necessarily happen due to the non-compliance of administrative obligations of those who exercise the function of providing and guaranteeing health to the population, in some cases, to this situation is added the lack of capacities – resources, preparation, technical approach and even autonomy—all of which also affects the problem described.

However, the responsibility to comply with health regulations is not an exclusive activity of the institutions of the Mexican State. In this matter, all the actors in the health sector have the same level of responsibility and legal, moral and ethical obligation, particularly because we people put our loved ones in their hands. In recent days, an outrageous story occurred in which a “cesarean section” was performed in a hospital in Mexicali without electricity, the intervention was carried out in the light of the lamps of some cell phones, which put the life of the woman at risk. mother and damage to the health of the newborn was generated, cites the information disseminated by the family itself, the responsibilities of the case must be defined by the authorities in an expeditious and rigorous manner through the verification process of the Hospital, which in these cases can even be promoted by the family through the so-called “Popular Action” health complaint.

Let’s take two steps back in this story that should never have happened. There is an official Mexican standard, NOM-016-SSA3-2012, which establishes the minimum characteristics of infrastructure and equipment for hospitals and specialized medical care offices. One of them is the obligation to have an electric power plant connected to an emergency system, for cases in which the establishment’s regular supply of electricity is interrupted, which is what, they explain, happened in this case, “The power went out for a period of 20 minutes.” Evidently, if the events had occurred in this case, other protocols and obligations of the hospital and of the medical personnel who attended the case would have been violated.

The problem with the “private health business” is that those who participate in it have not fully understood the relevance of compliance practices, this corporate governance obligation that companies have to have a unit, whether internal or external, to inform them precisely what regulations they must comply with and consequently, detect and indicate the risks that their daily practice may face.

In other words, it is having an internal voice that dictates to the directors, managers, executives and collaborators of the companies how to conduct themselves, that tells them when they are at risk of not complying with a rule and, most importantly, when they are moving away from their societal goal.

The norms of the health sector regulate the establishments, the professional and technical personnel and the public, social and private sectors. They ensure that health care services are provided with quality, effectiveness, efficiency and safety, and are the tool to guarantee the right to health protection established in the fourth article of the Political Constitution. Failure to comply with these regulations that actualizes damage should be the cause of serious sanctions, including criminal sanctions, for any natural or legal person who fails to comply with them.

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