The health authorities of the Valley have responded to the recent statements of the Minister of Health, Guillermo Jaramillo, who stated that the expansion of the Intensive Care Units, ICU, during the pandemic was a business for health institutions.
According to Jaramillo, entities were financially incentivized for each open bed in the ICU, which generated a rapid expansion of these critical units.
María Cristina Lesmes, Valle’s Health Secretary, dismissed the Minister’s comments, calling them “unfortunate” and noting that Jaramillo lacks knowledge about what really happened in each region.
Lesmes defended the expansion of ICUs as a necessary measure to address growing demand during the pandemic, thus denying the claim that it was a business deal.
It is not the first controversy of the ICUs in a pandemic
Jaramillo had also expressed concern earlier this year about the opening of ICU beds without trained staff, which, according to him, generated more deaths than benefits.
However, Valley authorities contradicted this statement, highlighting that measures were implemented to ensure the availability of qualified personnel in all new intensive care beds.
Within the framework of the health reform and Jaramillo’s criticism of the EPS, Lesmes stressed the importance of a regionalized and detailed analysis to understand the reality of each territory.
Likewise, he emphasized that the expansion of the ICUs responded to the need to strengthen the capacity of the health system to care for patients affected by COVID-19.