The closure of the hospitalization service of the Metrosalud Intermediate Unit in the Santa Cruz neighborhood, one of the most important care centers in the northeast of Medellín, is just the tip of the iceberg of the infrastructure, financial and administrative crisis that has that entity on the ropes in recent years.
Despite being in charge of the largest public service delivery network in Medellín, with 9 hospital units, 42 health centers and even a mental health unit, the flagship entity of the Medellín Mayor’s Office in terms of health seems to be abandoned to their fate.
From an accounting balance that shows an operational deficit of $35,051 million as of November 2022, serious or critical infrastructure problems in at least 22 of its headquarters (equivalent to 43.3% of the network) and multiple unfinished promises are part of of the balance sheet of the institution with less than a year remaining for a new change of government.
With a look full of uncertainty, Emilce del Socorro Pineda was one of the users who sat on a bench on the outskirts of the Santa Cruz Intermediate Unit on the morning of Tuesday, January 17.
After leaving her home in the Villa del Socorro neighborhood accompanied by her daughter, the woman was one of the inhabitants of the northeast of Medellín who was afraid of being left without a place to receive care.
“The attention has been very bad, we have been waiting for more than an hour. They told us that we have to wait because they are collapsed,” said the woman, noting that the news of the closure of the hospitalization service, ordered by the Antioquia Sectional Secretariat of Health last Monday, had already spread like wildfire among all the patients.
Despite being there accompanying her husband, diagnosed with colon cancer more than a year ago, Pineda explained that this intermediate unit is the closest care center she can go to and, if it were closed, she would remain in limbo. .
“One depends on Savia Salud and it affects us too much. So if this is closed and one is hospitalized, what does one do?” Pineda questioned.
In the case of the Santa Cruz Intermediate Unit, the Antioquia Health Secretary, Ligia Amparo Torres, pointed out that the ordered sealing occurred in the framework of control and surveillance visits carried out by that entity periodically.
“The hospitalization service was closed, but the patients who are in that service remain cared for. The fact is that new patients will not be allowed to enter until the findings that led to the partial closure of this service are corrected,” said Torres.
Although EL COLOMBIANO repeatedly asked the Health Section to explain in detail the shortcomings found and to publicize the minutes in which the sealing was formalized, the entity refused to share the information. However, sources within Metrosalud specified that the partial closure in Santa Cruz would have been taken due to the lack of a doctor in the hospitalization service.
A patient who worsens
As if it were a disease that has been gaining ground over time, the sealing of the hospitalization service in Santa Cruz is just one of the symptoms of the ills that afflict the entity.
From the personnel point of view, this is not the first time that the organization has been in the eye of the hurricane for lack of hands in its headquarters. In October 2021, for example, the Medellín Ombudsman’s Health Observatory had already issued an alert after finding the entity’s employees with work overload and problems in the provision of services in locations such as Santa Cruz, Santo Domingo, San Javier and Sun of the East.
In the midst of this panorama, the control entities have also warned about the infrastructure crisis that at least 22 headquarters are going through, which according to a diagnosis that was made public during a political control debate held in the Medellín Council show that almost half of the network is in serious or severe condition.
In May 2022, the then manager Martha Cecilia Castrillón Suárez revealed that the entity calculated that the money it would cost to solve these problems amounted to at least $185,780 million, a figure that is far from the budget allocations that the entity has benefited from. for that task.
And it is that added to this mess, the institution is also in trouble due to its poor financial situation, mainly because of the debts maintained by various insurers and its place in the municipal budget, which has been prioritized for other portfolios.
According to the most recent accounting balance published by the same entity on its website, as of November 2022, finances showed an operating deficit of $35,051 million.
A relegated entity
The doctor Gonzalo Alberto Vélez López, president in Antioquia of the Union Medical Association (Asmedas), states that the evils that afflict Metrosalud today can be divided into two faces. While on the one hand the entity drags structural problems from years ago and financial problems linked to the operation of the health system, it also suffers from a lack of political will to be recovered.
Regarding this last factor, the union leader points out that from the beginning of this government, one of Asmedas’ requests was that indicators be included in the municipal development plan to encourage local institutions to recover the entity.
Likewise, he considered that a city with the administrative capacity of Medellín should be ashamed of the delays in projects such as the Buenos Aires Hospital Unit, which after more than eight years of construction still has not managed to open its services to the east of Medellín.
Sitting on a platform located a few meters from the goal of the Manrique Intermediate Unit, Doris Patricia Rojas Restrepo, a resident of the Buenos Aires neighborhood, regretted having had to cross half the city to seek care for a sister-in-law with Sisbén, whose only hope was to receive care. in Metrosalud.
“We went down on foot to Sagrado Corazón, from there we took the tram. We got off the tram in San José and took the metroplus that goes through Oriental. Then we went up here,” Rojas narrated, lamenting that after eight years of works, eastern Medellín still does not have a complete hospital unit.
With a similar look, Gustavo Chica, a resident of the Campo Valdés neighborhood, was one of the patients who attended the Castilla Hospital Unit last Tuesday and regretted not being able to access the orthopedics service, suspended at that location.
“I am a member of Savia Salud and there they told me that in all Metrosalud centers they treat you, but it seems not. I came and they told me that there are no orthopedic appointments and that I must go to Bethlehem to be treated ”, lamented Chica, warning that he would have to cross the entire city to be treated.
Outstanding questions
Last Wednesday, January 11, and with a few months to go before the change of government, Metrosalud formalized a change in its management, after the resignation of manager Martha Castrillón materialized and the position was assumed by dentist Valentina Sosa Carvajal.
During her tenure, the latter official assured that one of her priorities would be to improve the entity’s finances, mitigate the infrastructure crisis and relations with unions.
To find out in detail the diagnosis made during this connection process, what strategy is in place to reverse the bad financial situation and why the entity is unable to resolve its crises at its headquarters, EL COLOMBIANO sent a request to Metrosalud since last Monday, December 16. January. Until the closing of this edition, the entity refrained from ruling.
Beyond this silence, all the patients expressed their dissatisfaction with the entity’s crisis and expressed their rejection of the broken promises.
“I see that situation with Metrosalud very badly. If our services are closed, where are we going to be hospitalized? If something happens to my husband, where will he be hospitalized? This affects us,” added Pineda, lamenting that patients are always the ones who carry the burden due to the lack of responses from public institutions to solve problems.