Health promised to provide a solution to the surgeons’ claim

After the conflict at the San Juan Bautista Hospital with the surgery team, the Minister of Health, Lucas Zampieri, met with the medical professionals of the hospital and with representatives of the Medical College. According to the minister, it was agreed to improve the working conditions of doctors and a schedule was established to guarantee that the different operations are carried out normally. He also affirmed that the director of the Hospital, Miguel Mosquera, will continue in office.

The meeting took place after a week of uncertainty in the Hospital, which began with the stoppage of activities that caused surgeries to be suspended and continued with the massive resignation of the area’s heads and with the presentation of the director’s resignation. The meeting took place at the offices of the Ministry of Health.

“The meeting was very good, they (the doctors) have been operating and we have agreed to be able to deepen and improve that work based on patient care, which is what we all seek. The purpose of the talk was to improve patient care. They have been doing work in that sense and we have asked them to continue in that way,” the minister said at a press conference, to which he added that starting next week, “we are going to have programming as we have been doing since “This week with the management team so that all the operations that are carried out in the operating room are clear.”

Zampieri stated that, although the salary issue was touched upon, it was not the focus of the talk. “In the claim, there were several aspects where salary was one, but it was clear that what matters is patient care. In short, salary is one of the points but what matters to us all is patient care and improving surgical care times in the Hospital,” he said.

In this context, he said that there was a commitment to improve equipment in order to optimize medical work. “There are surgical instruments that have to be purchased because they have been used for years. We are committed to improving that so that they can operate with all the equipment they deserve,” he promised.

The minister assured that despite the strike, the hospital’s emergency service “always worked” and that after this meeting it was agreed to “put a schedule” to optimize the work. He added that despite the strike, it was not necessary to make any referral to the private health system. “The strike was last Wednesday and the people who had not had surgery finally all had intervention. With the work schedule that we have been doing, we believe that the referral is not necessary, but it is a possibility that we have although we have not used it,” he highlighted.

He also referred to the request for the resignation of the director of the institution. He said that he spoke with Mosquera and that “for now” he will continue in office. Zampieri stated that the director “did not present an indeclinable resignation” but rather raised it as “a possibility within the framework of this conflict of the resignations of the heads of service.”

“He proposed it as an official like any of us who has the resignation available all the time,” he said.

Later, the minister came to the crossroads of criticism from opposition deputies, who maintained that the Province’s Health System is being “emptied.” Zampieri maintained that “a lot has been invested in the health system” and highlighted that the current Government administration has already inaugurated seven hospitals throughout the province. “Of course you have to differentiate what is infrastructure and human resources. “We understand and agree with the speech of the Medical College regarding the lack of human resources and above all the lack of specialists,” he said. In this sense, he assured that the Province is working on different alternatives to solve this problem. “We have presented the latest report at CONEAU to see if we can launch the medical degree at the end of the year. Also, we have launched 22 places for medical residences and we committed to expanding those places to ensure that medical professionals come to Catamarca and stay in Catamarca,” he explained.

National situation

The official also took the opportunity to charge against the national management. “The national situation is mainly affected by all the resources that are not reaching us,” he explained. “We are maintaining PROFE and Incluir Salud from the Province and from the province we are making a great effort to sustain all those programs that do not arrive. The SUMAR program is working and we are putting the focus there because it allows us to bill for all medical care provided to people who do not have social work coverage,” he added.

Finally, he indicated that next week there could be news regarding the dengue vaccine. We had a meeting with the Minister of Health of the Nation regarding dengue. There was talk about the 24-25 work plan when we thought about talking about the vaccine,” he said. “They are just going to have a meeting with the laboratory and we are going to meet again next week to see who gets vaccinated and how,” he concluded.