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After several complaints from Health personnel for the collection of expired vaccines, Eliú Mazariegos, director of the Comprehensive Health Care System (SIAS), announced that they are in the process of preparing a specific manual to address these issues, which It will be available in about two weeks.
However, so that the workers are not charged for expired vaccines, they must present documentation and the person in charge of the area will be the one who releases them from responsibility, since if they administratively determine that there is negligence, there will be a charge for them to make the payment effective.
Following up on the complaints of collection of expired vaccines from Health workers, Deputy Aldo Dávila yesterday organized the third meeting in the company of Health workers from Sololá, Escuintla, Totonicapán, Sacatepéquez and Chimaltenango, Health Defender of the Office of the Attorney General of the Human Rights (PDH), Zulma Calderón, Vice Minister of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS), Ariel Hernández Cardona y Mazariegos, director of the Comprehensive Health Care System (SIAS), who developed the dialogue table to find a possible solution to that situation.
MSPAS KNOWS INDICATORS
The Deputy Minister of Health, Hernández Cardona, confirmed that according to indications from the ministerial office in the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, citizens have presented some resistance coupled with specific characteristics such as the useful life of the vaccine, which is very short, so breaks the regular scheme of other biologicals.
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“Definitely hold any worker or collaborator responsible, who despite their effort to vaccinate and attend to the vaccination plan and the different health guidelines, is definitely not appropriate and the Minister made it clear in a statement two weeks ago that in those cases definitely not going to be charged, “emphasized Hernández Cardona.
He added: “It is not fair or correct that someone would pay on a vaccine expiration when the short useful life is evident, the rejection of some sectors of the population of the vaccine is evident and let’s not forget a universal principle, it is voluntary.”
COMPANIONS SUPPORT
Staff from Sacatepéquez, Totonicapán and Chimaltenango participated in the meeting, who expressed that despite not being in the same situation as their colleagues, they attended the meeting in support of the nursing team.
“We believe that morally we have to support our nursing team because the 29 areas are in the same conditions,” commented one of the nurses.
In addition to the accompaniment, a worker from Chimaltenango mentioned that in her area there is a charge for vaccines because on December 3 of last year, the refrigerator that they provided at the central level had a problem and 2,160 Sputnik V were thawed, so they applied the protocol of the logistics manual; however, the audit placed the discovery and payment of the vaccine so that five people paid Q14 thousand each.
DENY STATEMENTS
Sandra Mazariegos, a health worker in the department of Escuintla and affected by the charge for biologicals, commented that the Minister of Health reported that the vaccine was not being charged; however, she argues that they do require it by the internal audit, in which they provide the date and account number where the payment for the vaccines must be made.
“The date to make the payment was April 5, but we have resisted because there was a revocation and this has a date of receipt at the Ministry on March 31, as long as we do not have a favorable response for us, we continue in the same,” he said. Mazariegos.
He added that the treatment by the audit is not friendly. “With the arrival of the Public Ministry (MP) to our services, it is psychological harassment because we are health workers, someone who helps, not a criminal,” he said.
PDH WITH OPEN FILE
The defender of Health, Zulma Calderón, indicated that she has an open file at the national level, in which all these cases are investigated.
“This situation does not surprise us because we had warned about it since January of last year, with all the recommendations that we had given to the Ministry of Health, it was even a contradictory situation because the heads of the Health directorates themselves denounced with us that they did not want to receive the vaccines and the Ministry is forcing them to receive them,” Calderón said.
Likewise, he mentioned that the document issued by the authorities has to be much more than an official letter, it must be a resolution or a ministerial agreement in order to make the issue clear.
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