Medication is Distributed in Salta without Considering the Needs of the Recipients
<p style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">A report by the SIGEN affirms that standardized kits sent to the province did not provide the health characteristics of the location and, therefore, drugs that were not needed accumulated while, in turn, they were short on essential medicines. The local Audit, meanwhile, added that in some health centers they do not know what to do with the expired merchandise.</span></p> <div> </div>
The Office of the Comptroller General (SIGEN, for its acronym in Spanish) found that through a National Program of the Ministry of Health drugs were given to the most vulnerable populations in Salta between January and November 2008, "without considering the needs of the recipients, or the most common diseases.”
This is the Remediation Program, which was created in 2002 as a strategy to provide drug coverage to those who depended on the public system for access to essential medicines. At first “standardized kits” were distributed at the Centers for Primary Health Care (CAPS).
The report was part of the receivership of the Federal Public Network Control and originated in work of the Auditor General of Salta, passed this year on data from 2008. The provincial agency found that Remedy Salta, could not regulate the amounts of drugs sent and, by not considering the health characteristics of the locations, they generated an "excess stock" of drugs which later expired and at the same time, a lack of essential medicines.
In addition, the paper points out that in most consulting rooms in Salta "administrative function was filled by one or more nurses, with many additional tasks." Indeed, in some centers, such as Abdala Ramon Rosario de la Frontera, "at the time of the audit, the two individuals responsible for Remediation, were not in place due to sick leave."
Moreover, the Salta Audit highlights that the drug storage "is a shared space with different activities, they are not locked, they are freely available, and do not have one person responsible for them", in addition the physical stock count "is not done on a regular bases."
At the same time, the accumulated and expired drugs are staying in the centers, awaiting further instructions. According to the study, some storage rooms had drugs for over a year and others "didn’t know the procedures for the expired drugs."
Finally, the audit of Salta recommended "analyzing the kit replacement procedures, to prevent accumulation of stock for long periods of time, due to the risks involved." The Watchdog added that the analysis should "adjust medications included in the kits with the most used in each area, based on the most common diseases, the time of year, and the suggestions offered by the centers."
The report also explained that despite inquiries from managers of consultation rooms to the Provincial Head of the program, in many cases they had to resort to national authorities for treatment, "to date no substantial improvement in the process of renewal kits has been carried out.”