When it interrupted the provision of oncological medications and other serious diseases to people who do not have medical coverage, the Ministry of Human Capital under Sandra Pettovello alleged that it was based on the discovery of irregularities in the laboratory purchasing system implemented by the administrations. previous. With that argument he made a criminal complaint that the ministry spread enthusiastically, but which ended up being categorically rejected. by Judge Julián Ercolini after two prosecutors assured that There was no irregularity or crime in sight. From December 10 to the end of April, as he was able to reconstruct Página/12, more than 50 people died who had been receiving treatments that were discontinued by Javier Milei’s government.
The Directorate of Direct Assistance for Special Situations (Dadse) is responsible for the delivery of high-cost medications and orthopedic items to patients in vulnerable situations. Since the Libertarian administration began until the end of February, he was in charge of Pettovello’s portfolio. He then moved into the orbit of the Ministry of Health, headed by Mario Russo. Previously, this policy was the task of the Ministry of Social Development. Ercolini’s ruling was signed on March 22 but became known only now. Despite being restrictive, the panorama has not changed much: currently there are still about 1,900 people waiting to resume their treatments and a similar number are trying to process the delivery of medication but are told to wait.
There is an additional universe of citizens without resources who received medication “over the counter” directly from the agency’s pharmacy, such as antiepileptics, psychotropic drugs, asthma medication, which are not being delivered. “These patients are not counted, they are not registered, but they are essential medications and people end up being told that there are none,” warns Carolina Oliveto, Program Director of the Argentine Patient Alliance (Alapa).
Audit and complaint
With the strategy of showcasing audits on the management of his predecessors regarding various programs linked to social rights, Pettovello initiated one on the mechanism used to control prices and choose suppliers among the laboratories of medication and supplies for serious or rare diseases, that require expensive medication and that in some steps are not in the country. In the second half of February it was spread everywhere that they had found irregularities, possible overpricing and directed tenders. He then sent the Legal Undersecretary of the portfolio, Leila Daniela Gianni, to make a complaint to Comodoro Py.
The claim was that Dadse selected suppliers in an irregular manner, which was done by email to a chain of users “without certifying their ownership” and that the responses were “informal estimates without any signature or rigor” so, He concluded, “the supplier from whom to buy the very expensive medications is selected on a whim.” It also said that the organization uses a provision from 2016 – later suspended – and “it would violate the general contracting regime for the National Public Administration, potentially violating the principles of transparency, equality of suppliers and equality of bidders…” It stated that this “would have a high impact on the public treasury.” He spoke of “very high and immeasurable amounts involved” that he did not specify.
Lawyer Gianni became known because she held public positions in both the Frente de Todos and Cambiemos governments (in Chief of Staff, Ministry of Environment, Justice) and last year she campaigned for Sergio Massa’s candidacy.
When he went to ratify the complaint, Gianni said that the funds assigned to Dadse were 37 million pesos. But he missed by a lot: in 2023 it was 39,853 million pesos. On Tuesday, February 20, the Ministry of Health, which took charge of Dadse, published on the official website that the portfolio “managed the purchase of high-cost medications, both oncological and for other diseases, for a total amount of 140 one billion pesos.” He would also later say that that amount was what would cut the ministry.
In terms of the audit and that complaint, Pettovello justified not providing more cancer medications, other serious illnesses, and supplies. The scandal grew because there were patients who made their situation public and some revealed the death of family members in dramatic conditions. In terminal illnesses it is evident that death cannot be attributed to the interruption of treatment itself, but it is a brutal blow to the quality with which a person and their environment go through their days. In certain cases medication can be decisive.
But Gianni returned and handed over a list with payments. At that time, prosecutor Carlos Rívolo replaced González and maintained that, in addition to the information being incomplete, “the new data provided by the ministerial portfolio does not provide new insights that would allow refuting the foundations” of his colleague. As there was no push for the criminal investigation by the prosecution, Judge Ercolini decided to dismiss the complaint.
Scenery
In addition to public complaints, as this newspaper reported, there are individual protections and there is a collective one between six organizations of family members and patients. In some cases with precautionary measures in favor and for particular patients, Dadse had to deliver the medication. There were surprising cases where the government appealed to resist complying with facilitating treatment. A patient whose case was appealed had died a few days earlier when they called his family to tell them that the medication was now available. The collective cause remains to be seen. When the problem escalated, the director of Dadse, who had no formal appointment, Sergio Eloy Díaz, resigned. Only now he was replaced by Román Angel Broda, a former official in Azul.
“Some patients were called but then they were not given anything. We need them to regularize the delivery of medicines by Dadse, this should never have been suspended even though audits were carried out and a complaint was made that further delayed deliveries. But but to this day, After more than five months, there are patients in a vulnerable situation who are waiting for their medication and this is distressing both for patients, for their families and for the organizations that accompany them,” said María Alejandra Iglesias, from the Sostén Association, which works with cancer patients and their environment.
Regarding the court ruling, deputy Juan Marino (Unión Por la Patria), who has been dealing with the issue, said: “This shows that the suspension of Dadse by Pettovello had no legal basis and is solely due to the objective of Milei and Caputo of imposing zero deficit at the cost of everything, i“including the lives of people with cancer.”
