Ecuador: Minister of Public Health Resigns
Ex-Health Minister of Ecuador, June 2024 Photo: @edicionmedEC
June 14, 2024 Hour: 7:05 pm
Several weeks ago, a group of patients in Quito demanded that the government pay the debts owed to the specialized dialysis centers and held sit-ins with the same objective in several cities around the country.
On Friday, Ecuador’s Minister of Public Health, Franklin Encalada, resigned amid criticism of the government’s management of the lack of medicines and supplies in medical centers.
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Encalada was appointed as head of the branch in November 2023, from the beginning of the mandate of the current president, Daniel Noboa, and was at the head of the state portfolio for seven months.
It is not yet known who will replace him.
In his letter of resignation, which is circulating on social networks, Encalada assures that he fulfilled “the goals we set for the benefit of the health of children, pregnant women, the elderly, and vulnerable populations, without discrimination”.
My eternal gratitude to the president Daniel Noboa
for having entrusted me with such an important responsibility. Today I say goodbye to the Ministry of Health wishing the best for the country and Ecuadorians.
However, his administration has been constantly criticized for the lack of supplies in hospital centers and also for the millions in arrears in payments to dialysis centers.
Several weeks ago, a group of patients in Quito demanded that the government pay the debts owed to the specialized dialysis centers and held sit-ins with the same objective in several cities around the country.
The lack of payment from the state complicates care and there are already institutions that have suspended care or do not have the necessary supplies for this process, which is essential for the lives of kidney patients who do not have private health insurance.
Last February, legislators from the Citizen’s Revolution (CR) movement visited public hospitals in several provinces of Ecuador and found that there was a shortage of medicines and staff, especially specialists, in the health institutions.
Contrary to what Minister Encalada claimed, that the supply was 92 per cent, the health institutions had an average of 60 per cent of the necessary drugs, denounced legislator Ana Herrera at the time.
She told the press that they had also detected serious infrastructure problems in first, second and third level health institutions, “some of which are literally falling apart”.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: DW-The Star
