The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Carolina Corcho Mejía, formalized the allocation of resources for biomedical equipment that will provide the San Francisco de Quibdó hospital, valued at $3,202 million. The equipment, which is in the process of being acquired by the State Social Enterprise (ESE), will improve access to medium-complexity radiology and diagnostic imaging services.
Is about a tomograph, an endoscopy tower and a mammograph obtained with money committed since December 2022. It is worth remembering that, in addition to the announcement of the acquisition of the equipment, the allocation of $10,640 million destined for the construction of the Mental Health Unit is added, which will allow strengthening access to services, specifically in mental health, oriented in a special way to the attention to victims, in a project that is in charge of the Government of the department of Chocó.
Aída Victoria Merlano’s campaign for Hospital San Francisco in Chocó
It is worth mentioning that recently, Aída Victoria Merlano launched a campaign to improve the conditions of workers at the San Francisco de Asís Hospital in Quibdó, who have been waiting for their payment for months. Other influencers have joined his outrage.
The influencer Aída Victoria Merlano has become news these days due to her visit to the San Francisco de Asís Hospital in the department of Chocówhich currently owes its employees more than five months of salary and in the midst of the economic crisis has found itself in trouble maintaining its infrastructure, accessing medical supplies, performing surgeries, among other problems.
On several occasions Merlano has denounced the facts and the truth is that His persevering activism against the injustices in Chocó is as constant as the state’s oblivion, the incessant war, and the undignified living conditions in the department.. He even made it known through a video that he delivered almost 500 markets for a value of 70 million to the employees of this assistance center.
“Currently there is a delicate situation, a crisis. The Chocó Hospital has a staff that has not been paid for six months (…) People are hungry, people do not have a decent hospital where they can receive care, we come across people who are receiving precarious care in precarious facilities and what we all want to say is that right now we need Colombia to put his eyes on Chocó,” said Merlano.
In addition, he denounced: “There are no syringes, there is no serum, there are no medicines, people basically enter this hospital sentenced to death if they do not have to pay for the supplies.”
At the same time, an awareness campaign began to be generated on social networks about the difficult social and public order situation that exists in the department (under the hashtag #yelchocoque), where several people began to denounce different problems and make calls to action. An effort that may seem like a shout into the void taking into account the history of a nation that has grown marginalizing the periphery from its cities.
After that situation, The Superintendence of Health uploaded a video to its Instagram account in which it highlighted the payment of several pending salaries, as well as several investments in structure and supplier payments at the Francisco de Asís Hospital. A video that Merlano assures is from a year ago and the truth is that he is not wrong because the evidence supports it: this Hospital is intervened, from time to time, to alleviate the accumulated crises but never to end the root problem.
This is how the director of La Gaceta de Quibdó, Edubar Arango, denounced it in his column in Kienyke.com, when he said: “Supersalud complies with some periodicity with the sending of the resources to cover the receivables and they even catch up at some point with the payments of the medical personnelbut there is no brake for this taximeter that runs with frenzy, and that does not stop anyone, despite the fact that thanks to the resources provided by the Ministry of Health and the Rescue and Guarantee Fund for the Health Sector, it was possible to cancel everything the labor liabilities of plant personnel and the provision of services corresponding to the years 2019 and 2020”.
“The SuperHealth page has just published a video from last year, which happened a while ago, publishing that some beds arrived at the Francisco de Asís Hospital in Chocó, an investment, they paid some salaries Of course! They paid some salaries that were owed at that time, but six months ago there are still 500 civil servants who do not receive salary and I who entered that hospital know that there is not a son of a bitch… syringe”, the influencer stated on her social networks.
A video that adds to one from last December in which, with obvious anger, he lashed out at the press for not listening to his complaints about the situation in Chocó.
It should be remembered that the San Francisco de Asís Hospital is currently intervened by the Supersalud, a measure that will remain in force until June 2022. What is striking is that, as Arango reveals, said center is regenerating its income while its employees are thrown out of their homes, endure hunger and are even squeezed with vaccines by armed groups. This, while the hospital’s medical capacity is practically nil, to the point of having to ask their patients to transfer to another hospital by their own means.
“Another of the advances that Supersalud highlights in the report is that the hospital increased the average monthly billing from $1,500 million (beginning of 2020) to $3,426 million (2021), exceeding the established goal of $3.2 billion. That sounds fantastic to be broke”, says the journalist from Choco.
Meanwhile, in this case, the reason is taken by the influencers who, like Merlano, denounce injustices from their pulpits and sometimes, due to the desire for scandal, see how gossip prevails over less transcendental situations. As he well said in one of his videos, maybe it’s time to stop demanding the influencer and start demanding the politician. A task that is urgent in Chocó given the indolence and impudence of its leaders.