The Comptroller General of the Republic, Federico Humbert, publicly declared his support for the implementation of emergency express procurement measures between now and December, aimed at addressing the severe shortage of medical supplies affecting the Saint Thomas's Hospital.
Mr. Humbert explained that this temporary solution needed to go hand in hand with special training of the hospital bureaucracy if current issues are to be solved and their re-occurrence avoided. "The emergency measures with only apply until December: it is imperative that the hospital administration be in a position to return to normal operations as of January 2017", he declared.
The Comptroller General explained that this issue would be discussed in next Tuesday's cabinet meeting, so that "the emergency action could be implemented as early as Monday 22nd of August, by which date medical supplies should be available".
While recognizing that Saint Thomas's Hospital certainly faced a crisis, Mr. Humbert attempted to minimize the problem. He confirmed that the hospital administration would receive extra support in an effort to make it more efficient.
For his part, the director general of Saint Thomas's Hospital, Luke Bravo, highlighted the importance of finding permanent solutions to issues that date back a long time.
“Hospital staff will be working in a coordinated fashion with the central government and the Comptroller General's office to make this work", he declared, asking that " Panamanians have the confidence that Saint Thomas's Hospital would continue to work for the good of the population it had always served".
However, Saint Thomas' specialist doctors have been complaining for two years now about the lack of basic medical supplies, and the health ministry has been seen as unable to solve the procurement crisis.
The situation was so serious that in May 2015, the Association of Specialist Doctors announced the suspension of surgical procedures at the hospitaldue to the lack of basic medical supplies such as contrast dyes used in detecting arterial obstruction.
The Comptroller General of the Republic, Federico Humbert, publicly declared his support for the implementation of emergency express procurement measures between now and December, aimed at addressing the severe shortage of medical supplies affecting the Saint Thomas's Hospital.
