The Medellin’s town hall reported this Friday that the Clinic of the 80 will continue to operate under its responsibility until the end of the covid-19 pandemic.
The municipal administration again highlighted the investment it made of $23,744 million in locative adjustments in the clinic since it took it on a precarious loan, that is, free of charge since 2020. This investment, according to the Mayor’s Office, saved more than 5,000 lives and “recover an infrastructure that was abandoned and lacked basic elements such as pipes and energy until the time of the loan”.
The Mayor’s Office assured that while the 80th Clinic will continue to provide services under its administration, it will work on “all legal actions so that the investments made in this infrastructure are recognized.”
In the loan contract, the municipal administration and the settlement agent They agreed that the money invested in the adaptation of the property would not be recognized by Saludcoop.
The Mayor’s Office had said from the beginning that his intention was to buy the Clinic, for which he had to disburse $96.5 billion. However, he was unable to make the purchase effective. First, because the same liquidating agent announced to the Mayor’s Office on December 30, 2021 that no public entity of the national, departmental or municipal order could do business with the EPS Saludcoop, since said EPS had a fiscal sanction in force.
And second, because although last January, Quintero said that he could acquire it because a law allowed the National Government to buy the Clinic and hand it over to the municipality, the Executive allowed the terms of the law to expire and it could not be carried out either.
Thus, the investment made by the Mayor’s Office was left in limbo, and this is precisely what the administration ensures in the statement that it seeks to avoid by legal means.
So it was the Fundación Colombiana de Cancerología Clínica Vida that stayed with the Clinic, after announcing on February 23 the signing of a promise of sale with the EPS Saludcoop in liquidation in which it disbursed an initial $16,500 million.
In a dialogue with EL COLOMBIANO, Francisco Lozano, manager of the Vida Clinic, stated that they had already arranged meetings to discuss the investments made by the Mayor’s Office. He did not give many details on the subject but he did ratified that the adjustments allowed the clinic to have a location of optimal level.
Regarding the date of the final delivery of the property, Lozano explained that they had contemplated the possibility that the Mayor’s Office request an extension of the loan, as allowed by the National Government, while the health emergency lasted, an aspect in which Lozano said that they had no qualms.
What does cause noise in the Mayor’s communiqué is that it states that “taking into account the investment made and the relevance of its use, the The Mayor’s Office of Medellín continues to work on the acquisition of this property so that it continues to provide services to citizens with public care and be recognized worldwide as it is currently the General Hospital of Medellín”.
This message that does not fit with the current situation, since it was already clear that the municipal administration could not make the purchase and that the foundation that acquired it has already informed that the clinic will provide specialized services in highly complex oncology, that is, for cancer patients.
Among the endowment that the Vida Clinic has announced so far there are 200 beds for hospitalization individual, 10 operating rooms, 20 cubicles for immunotherapy and 80 cubicles for chemotherapy.
Saludcoop’s harsh pronouncement
Regarding the mayor’s statement, Saludcoop responded by means of a written statement. He maintained that in the loan contract signed with the Medellín Mayor’s Office, the entity undertook to “make necessary repairs at your own expense and risk for the care of patients diagnosed with covid-19, ifn that in no case Saludcoop would assume any obligation to recognize the cost of such works or repairs.
The foregoing was accompanied by a note: “(…) Bearing in mind that the use of the property was granted to the municipality without any consideration in favor.” The ESE in liquidation reiterated the legal impossibility of closing the deal with the territorial entity, due to the ruling on fiscal responsibility to which it is subject, and clarified that, at no time, did it promise the sale of the clinic to the Mayor’s Office, and that it is in hands of a private company that “paid for the full price offered”.
In this sense, the ESE rejected “that now the Mayor’s Office of Medellín announces that it will not carry out the restitution of the infrastructure, contrary to what is stipulated in a loan agreement that was signed in the exclusive interest of the Municipality.”
And, finally, he stated: “We will exercise all judicial measures aimed at protecting your rights and safeguarding the interests of recognized creditors in the process. (…). And we will request the preventive accompaniment of the control entities.”