Author: Daniel Alejandro Restrepo Tabares
announce that the IPS Vive Salud will stop providing its services in Armenia, the workers protested this week outside the headquarters.
Most of the health professionals who work in this IPS come from working in the IPS Humanizar, for many the same ordeal is repeated.
The health system crisis in Colombia continues to hit the territories hard. This time the IPS Vive Salud, which provides its services in the cities of Armenia and Manizales, announced to its workers its definitive closure in the Quindian capital, stating that it is facing an unsustainable financial crisis due to the lack of payment of the EPS to which they provide their services. services, leaving dozens of workers and patients in a desperate situation.
Liliana Patricia Rodríguez, respiratory therapist, said that together with her colleagues, around 20 people, were initially summoned for an urgent meeting, in which they thought they would discuss forms of payment or the continuity of our services because to date they are owed two months of wages.
To their surprise and that of their colleagues, they were informed that they were no longer going to continue working with the IPS. “The closure announcement was sudden, without prior notice, generating confusion and anguish among those of us who were waiting for clarity,” said the respiratory therapist.
He said management called a new meeting the week before, ostensibly to discuss a payment agreement with the company’s lawyers. However, the lawyers never showed up. “They summoned us the following Thursday, but they didn’t come. “They left us waiting without any explanation,” he added.
The lack of communication has been a constant in the process of closing the IPS, which has increased the feeling of abandonment among workers. According to Liliana Patricia Rodríguez, the company had assured them that the financial situation was under control, but suddenly, everything changed. “They told us that the EPS are not paying them, which makes it unsustainable to continue operating. “We have a large population of chronic, palliative and acute patients, and we work in several branches: respiratory therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, nutrition and occupational therapy.”
Another of those affected is Dayro Canchalá, a physiotherapist, who also expressed his frustration at the closure of the IPS: “the situation is complex because we are already owed two months of payment. They leave us in limbo, without prior notice. Many of us come from other cities and towns and from one day to the next they tell us that we are away.” The physical therapist further mentioned that many are almost completely dependent on this employment, and the sudden loss of income has left many without the means to cover their basic needs.
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Most of those affected came from working at the IPS Humanizar
The paradoxical thing about the closure of the IPS Vive Salud in Armenia is that this situation reopens wounds from the recent past for the majority of these workers who also experienced the closure of the IPS Humanizar a few months ago under similar circumstances.
One of them is Paola Mamián, a speech therapist who for the second time has experienced the closure of the IPS for which she worked. “First it was Humanizing, and now Live Health. It’s frustrating and disappointing. They let us work without warning and in the end we were left without answers or payments,” the health professional said, bewildered.
The speech therapist said that in her case she is from Popayán and since she did not have her own transportation, she had to pay a driver to take the distant routes assigned to her by the IPS for patient care. “They knew what was coming and they didn’t tell us anything. They let us work until they can’t do it anymore and suddenly they tell us they can’t continue and they leave us without payment, the only thing I want is for them to pay me so I can leave.”
One of the health workers of this IPS who is experiencing a worrying situation is the physiotherapist Mayle Colombia Oyola, who is in the final stretch of her pregnancy: “I am pregnant, at 37 weeks, and I currently do not have EPS because before Due to the lack of payment, I was unable to continue with my social benefits. I also have a five-year-old child in my care, and our economic situation is very complicated, I had to vacate the apartment I lived in, it is a frustrating situation.”
The same story is repeated among those affected. Mauricio Zumárraga, another physiotherapist, described the job insecurity they faced: “I managed to work for three months without a formal contract. They told us they would pay in 45 days, but the money never arrived. Now they owe us two months of work and we have not been able to have a payment agreement.”
Patients also suffer the consequences of the closure. Ana Mercedes Bustos, whose 100-year-old mother depended on the services of the IPS Vive Salud, explained her desperation by pointing out that her mother is in a wheelchair and needs constant care. “They left us without doctors or therapists from one day to the next. The EPS has not given any response.” She said that in her particular case she had just been treated at Humanizar and that it was a terrible surprise to find out that this IPS faces a similar situation.
Pain medicine and palliative care services of the IPS Vive Salud temporarily closed
Faced with the situation of the IPS Vive Salud in Armenia, it was learned that the Quindío Health Secretariat recently ordered the temporary closure of the pain medicine and palliative care services provided by this institution, due to non-compliance with the Mandatory Health Guarantee System. Quality contemplated in Law 9 of 1979.
In this regard, the head of the departmental portfolio, Carlos Alberto Gómez Chacón, stated that in an inspection of the health services provided by the IPS and the employment situation expressed by health professionals, it was found that in the specific case of the pain medicine and palliative care did not meet the requirements for authorization of that service.
“With respect to the other activities, it has been escalated to the labor office so that all the necessary accompaniment can effectively be carried out in this work situation that the different IPS workers are going through,” said the departmental health secretary.
