As a result of the fact that in the last hours it emerged that the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, had given permission for relatives to visit internees for covid-19 when it was prohibited, during the coronavirus pandemicthe Ministry of Health published a statement and denied that the official has given Permit authorizations for family members to visit covid-19 inmates in full isolation.
Everything arose from what the president of the Argentine Diabetic Protection League (LAPDI) said, Sylvia Brunoldi, during a ceremony on Wednesday at the Kirchner Cultural Center, where doctors, scientists and members of civil society were present to review the mandate.
Brunoldi was one of them and was in charge of thanking the official, since it allowed her to fire her husband, who lost his life due to covid-19 on August 24, 2020: “He sent me a private message to ask me which sanatorium my husband was admitted to. I told her it was the Anchorena and I understand that she interceded so that I could see it. When my daughter called to get the daily report, they told her she could go visit him.”
The official statement from the health authorities begins: “The Ministry did not and does not make visit authorizations. On August 30, 2020, in federal consensus, after listening to and responding to the requests of many relatives and health teams, it was made official for the entire national territory, through the Decree 714/2020, something that was already taking place in institutions and jurisdictions: Family accompaniment during the hospitalization of patients during their last days of life, diagnosed with covid-19 or any other illness or condition“, the statement begins.
In the letter they detail that that same day the official page of the Ministry had uploaded “a document with recommendations for the follow-up in the last days of terminal patients, prepared by the Forum of Argentine Scientific Societies, Civil Society Organizations and Universities before which the management balance was made.”
“For that moment, each institution, through its authorities, analyzing each particular case, granted authorization and generated the protocol“, details.
At the end of the statement they explain that the reason for the restriction of visits at the time had been due to the shortageWorldwide, personal protective equipment: “By mid-2020, this situation had already been resolved by the Ministry of Health, and for this reason, the institutions already generated authorizations for visits with protocols.”
In his speech on Wednesday, Brunoldi explained: “I want to thank Carla –then Secretary of Access to Health–, who thanks to her I was able to fire my husband, and then the decree that allowed people to fire our relatives in recent days. I don’t want to imagine what the pandemic would have been like without a Ministry of Health, with just a secretariat as it was,” he said.
And I add: “He sent me a private message to ask me which sanatorium my husband was admitted to. I told him it was the Anchorena and I understand that she interceded so that she could see him. When my daughter called to get her daily report, they told her that she could go visit him.
During his visit, Brunoldi noticed that “There were other relatives with more patients” and she said that she went to see her husband several times.
With decree 714/2020 in force, on September 7, the head of the LAPDI was part of the daily report of coronavirus cases carried out by the Ministry of Health. Then, he emphasized the importance of continuing with the Social, Preventive and Mandatory Isolation (ASPO), for which He asked for solidarity and collaboration from society.
In addition, he asked the authorities and health personnel to join “the visits to covid-19 patients in their last days. You don’t need to explain how painful and sad it is to live the experience of death in solitude. Make it easy to arrive on time.”
His words came after a case in which a father could not travel from Neuquén to Córdoba to see his daughter, who was terminally ill with cancer, was made public.
The woman, Solange Must (35 years old), passed away on August 21, 2020 and as a result many were invaded by anguish and demanded that the restriction be removed, something that was fulfilled days later.
forceful support
While, The ministers of the 24 districts of the country defended the management of the head of the national health portfolioCarla Vizzotti, during the coronavirus pandemic and pointed out that work was carried out with “empathy, taking into account the pain generated by each situation”in response to journalistic interpretations about the accompaniment and farewell of people hospitalized in serious condition due to Covid-19.
“We cannot allow them to want to make you believe that the difficult decisions that were made at the most critical moments of the pandemic were not adopted with empathy and taking into account the pain that each situation generated,” he said. a statement signed by the ministers of the 23 provinces and CABA, whose portfolio is in the hands of Fernán Quirós.
In a joint statement, the country’s highest health authorities also declared that they embrace “those who could not say goodbye to their loved ones.” “Know that you were always present in our decisions,” they said.
