The plenary session of the Chamber of Senators urged federal and state health institutions to guarantee the supply of medicines in general and for children with cancer and to report on the purchase and distribution of vaccines.
By show of hands, the legislators approved two points of agreement on the matter.
The senators called the federal Ministry of Health, state health secretariats, Institute of Health for Well-being (Insabi), Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), Institute of Social Security and Services of State Workers (ISSSTE) and others social security institutions to “that, within the scope of their attributions and responsibilities, guarantee the supply of drugs at all levels of care in their medical units, as well as timely and quality access to medical treatment for all users” .
The second operative part of the first point of agreement establishes that the Ministry of Health, Insabi and the State Health Secretariats must also inform, “in a timely manner, the strategy they have implemented to meet the demands for the supply of medicines to patients with childhood cancer.” .
According to the second point of agreement, the exhortation to the public institutions of the National Health System is “that within the framework of their powers, they report in detail the status of purchases and supply of each of the vaccines that make up the Universal Vaccination Program, including information on its distribution and application in the sectors of the population to which they are directed and guarantee their timely access ”.
The explanatory statement of the first agreement refers that in Mexico, the National System of Health Quality Indicators (Indicas), coordinated by the Ministry of Health, records that in 2019, 2020 and so far in 2021, one in four Prescriptions cannot be fully covered the first time the patient presents them in the first level of care units.
And that in the span of two years, more than 200 appeals and almost 600 complaints have been filed with the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) by rights holders who claim the lack of medicines for their treatments.
From the rostrum, Germán Martínez Cázares, senator of the Plural Group and who resigned as general director of the IMSS six months after being appointed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, warned that the fact that the Mexican president has recognized that there is a shortage it must have legal and criminal consequences.
“If the shortage of medicines caused deaths, there must be those responsible for those deaths … We will ensure that there are legal and criminal responsibilities for the shortage of medicines in institutes and public health centers,” the legislator declared.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx