A report from the General Audit Office of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) states that between the first consultation and the continuation of a dental treatment at the Hospital Jose Dueñas there are delays of 89 days in the morning shift and 119 days in the shift late.

These waits are "excessive, in relation to the delays observed in 2007," notes the report, which was approved this year. Also, while the heads of hospital services had stipulated that consultations should last for half an hour, the AGCBA detected that care takes between 55 and 85 minutes.

In an earlier report, the Watchdog had already identified three "critical areas" of the health center located in Almagro: hazardous waste management, clinical records management and delays in care. This time, the AGCBA tried to check whether these observations had any correction.

Beyond the delays, the Audit determined that Dueñas did not comply with the provisions of Law 154 of pathogenic waste, nor in its regulatory decree (1886/01) in three articles.

The number 7, in first place, it provides for health center employees to conduct periodic and medical examinations. But, according to the report: "the staff of the Hospital does not have health checks, no records of occupational accidents and / or diseases were found." To exemplify the risks, the AGCBA adds that the elevator used to transfer the pathogenic waste is the same as that used by the Duenas staff, when it should be exclusive to the waste, or, "have a perfectly marked schedule in which it will be used for this task and later sanitized by the Hospital staff."

Secondly, Article 11 provides that manuals for the management of pathological waste containing contingency programs for accidents should be developed. However, the sectors analyzed by the Audit (service of diagnostic imaging, endodontics, surgery and general dentistry), "have no contingency protocols for possible spills" of hazardous liquids.

Finally, according to article 23 of Law 154, the collection of pathogenic wastes should be done in a place that does not affect the biosecurity and hygiene of the establishment in which it is located. In Dueñas, the place where the waste is stored "does not have ultraviolet light, the ventilation is insufficient, it lacks washable walls and the hygiene was irregular," the report says.

"There is no record of the treatment given to hazardous liquid waste Y16," noted the auditors, referring to the developer and fixative liquids used in X-ray equipment.

In addition, there is another law that is not fulfilled. This is the 2214, which regulates the generation, handling, storage, transportation, treatment and final disposal of hazardous waste in the City. After the examination in Dueñas, the AGCBA concluded that "there is no formal circuit" that includes these steps. There were also two barrels containing hazardous liquids, generated by the diagnostic imaging service, that were "not labeled" as stipulated by the regulations, and it was not possible to determine what they contained.

The Watchdog adds that in the Hospital "there is no treatment as a hazardous waste to the chemical agent mercury," nor do they have an "anti-spill kit" recommended by the Environmental Health Coordination to collect that waste.

In regard to the patients' medical records, the Audit found that the orthodontic sector does not use this document in any of the shifts, which leads to a "duplication of records." Also, Dueñas lacks a formal circuit to archive the stories, in fact, could not find the 15% that the AGCBA had requested as a sample for analysis. However, in those that were found "the totality of the requested data is not completed," the work concludes and points out that in 53% of the sample (61 clinical records) "there is no record of the treating professional or its illegible, and in 55.4% (51) there is no informed consent."