Celeste started her thirties.
She is going to have a degree in Library Science or History, depending on which one she receives first.
She can't get a job and has no social work.
She has cancer.
She is chronic and
receives chemotherapy every six weeks
.
Her completion of her January chemo is more than a month late due to obstacles in the so-called DADSE, a State agency that delivers medication to people
without health coverage
.
Ten days ago, the area moved from the umbrella of the Ministry of Human Capital to that of Health, but many denounce that the delays started much earlier, with the change of Government.
Minister Mario Russo's entourage claims to be dealing with
cases on a case-by-case basis
, but in practice, when these lines were closed, there was a delay in the delivery of drugs to patients with serious illnesses.
Clarín
has recorded
200
, reported by different patient associations.
Each one is a life.
Knowing the global figure is important because some voices insist that, 1) the complaints are
few and isolated , 2) they are falsehoods coming from the opposition political thread, or 3) the majority of patients who demand their medication in the media
were already suffering from delays
.
administrative in the previous Government.
There have always been ups and downs in the speed with which DADSE works.
The question is to what extent the restructuring of the area initiated by Sandra Pettovello (Minister of Human Capital), which was based on inspecting an
alleged lack of transparency
in the management of funds in the area during Kirchnerism, neglected the care of the most needy patients. .
That is to say: if in the process of solving a problem, the current officials caused another worse one.
The front of the DADSE building in the City of Buenos Aires.
Photo: Maxi Failla
In their efforts to dismantle the irregular actions of the Directorate of Direct Assistance for Special Situations (DADSE), Pettovello and his team wrote a
criminal complaint
of 14 lapidary pages that has been processed in the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court II since February 7.
Judge Julián Ercolini and prosecutor Carlos Rívolo intervene.
The cover of the case is “
Defraud against the public administration - abuse of authority and violation of the duties of the public official - breach of authority and violation of the duties of the public official
.”
The document highlights serious aspects that the current Government must prove in court.
From
incomprehensible informalities
in administrative procedures (for example, in the exchange of communication between the agency and the supplying laboratories) to an apparent preference for certain pharmaceutical companies.
In addition, there is talk of a complete disregard of the suggestions of
two internal audits
that had warned of all of the above in 2019 and in 2022.
Uncovering irregularities in the functioning of the State seems correct.
The problem is the dozens of patients who have been complaining (in some cases, since December) that the medication they processed is not delivered
in a timely manner
.
In many cases, like that of Celeste, a Hodgkin lymphoma patient, these people's lives depend on drugs.
No matter how much it was insisted, neither the Ministry of Human Capital nor the Ministry of Health
specified the number of people affected
by the administrative delays.
Nor, how many patients have procedures underway in the DADSE, in general.
Requests for access to public information were made to both portfolios, which should be responded to in the coming days.
High-cost medications for patients without coverage
It was possible to access figures from 2019. That year, the DADSE had processed almost 4,800 requests for
high-cost
medication , almost 950 requests for prostheses and 50,000 for low-cost drugs.
Celeste Quintana, oncology patient who does not receive her medication.
At the close of this note, the Ministry of Health reported that they did not have the number of patients to report (neither one, the general number, nor the other, the specific number of those affected), but that "they have been working since day one on “order and at the same time
remove emergencies
based on medical audit criteria.”
The medium-term objective, they added, is for “the DADSE to recover its founding meaning, which is to serve the
vulnerable population
with exclusive medical coverage for high-cost medications, and in complement to the responses that the provincial and provincial systems must also provide. municipal”.
The latter means that the Nation will seek to get rid of the attention of the so-called “low cost”, which the provinces should take care of.
In fact, the DADSE is a kind of
“third instance”
of care, after the province denies the patient the medication they need (because they do not have it) and after these drugs cannot be provided to the province through from the drug bank of the Ministry of Health of the Nation.
It is at that moment that the patient must go to the DADSE.
The DADSE, between two ministries
Let's go back for a minute to what happened now.
When Capital Humano was preparing the aforementioned criminal complaint, it committed the clumsiness of hanging a poster in the DADSE office announcing that
they were closing “momentarily”
for a “readaptation in systems and procedures.”
If the patients' complaints had been individual and silent, at that moment they went viral.
Everyone (rightly) understood that the Directorate had closed.
The sign on the door of the DADSE because of which many patients believed that the department had closed.
The Government then came out to explain that the agency was functioning but that it was being transferred from the former Ministry of Social Development (under the wing of Pettovello) to the orbit of the Ministry of Health.
This was how it had worked until 2020 and had to return to its place.
Minister Mario Russo received a hot potato: suddenly there was a Directorate under his government that
owed
money to suppliers and million-dollar prostheses and medication to patients without social security or prepaid payments, many of them with delayed treatments, complaining here and there.
Although the number of people affected is enigmatic, associations that bring together cancer patients and those with other pathologies considered rare shared their concern.
Between the talks with the Cancer Solidarity Foundation (Fusoca), the Argentine Alliance of Patients (ALAPA) and another network that brings together patients on the Buenos Aires coast, it was possible to estimate about 200 affected people.
The DADSE now came under the orbit of Minister Mario Russo.
Photo: Emmanuel Fernández
Celeste's torture
We are talking about not only serious or chronic patients but also exhausted ones.
They have few financial resources and juggle paperwork in search of their medication.
Let's look at the case of Celeste, with whom
Clarín
chatted after Telefé journalist Mariano García revealed her story.
“Mine takes a long time,” she started.
“I live in Quilmes and I don't have social work.
To have the medication I need for Hodgkin lymphoma, my doctor, who is from the Hospital de Clínicas, in Capital, has to make the medical order and also fill out a form that must be signed by her, her head of the Hematology Department and the director of the hospital.
This takes about
three days
.”
Now: “As I am from the Province, I have to take the papers to a hospital in my jurisdiction.
I go to Gandulfo, in Lomas de Zamora.
I present the papers and they send them to La Plata.”
However, since the medication is not in the vademecum, the Ministry of Health of the province of Buenos Aires is required to deny the request and give Celeste
more forms to complete
.
“About ten days later, I return from Gandulfo with the refusal and the papers in my hand.
I go to the Clinics to see my doctor, who fills out and signs everything and adds the signature of her boss and her director, which takes
another three or four days
.
Then they give me a refusal from the hospital saying that they don't have the medication either,” she added.
Finally, Celeste takes the papers to DADSE.
However, she was experiencing what was described in these lines: an indefatigable delay in receiving the chemo medication.
“I delivered the papers on November 30.
At DADSE they told me to call on December 15 to see the status of the process.
I called and they told me it wasn't there yet;
that it was on budget and I would call in 15 days.
I had chemo scheduled for January.
I have to comply with the scheme
every six weeks
and that is why I get ahead of myself with the procedure,” she clarified.
Celeste has a quiet, somewhat shy voice.
Her tone is young and sweet.
And she, in fact, concluded like this: “I called back every 15 days since then.
The last time was this week.
At DADSE they told me that they were not doing tenders.
“They asked me to call back in 15 days.”
P.S.