OPINION: Inepitude in drugs boondoggle

Hoyporhoy, La Prensa. Aug. 8

THE DELAY in medical records and a tangled state procurement process have left people  without essential medicines.

With a tax collection criterion sometimes suspiciously restrictive of competition, the Department of Pharmacy and Drugs of the Ministry of Health has about 4,000 cases awaiting its proper processing. Meanwhile, as acknowledged by the health authority, at least 50 important drugs are without their respective records, despite this  being a recurring and almost automatic process.

The bureaucratic morass combined with the exaggerated ineptitude of officials lacking the excuse of lack of resources, the responsibility for  enforcing the law is passed to  imaginary third parties or to the Office of the Comptroller General.

This is an important and vital matter of national security for all citizens. We can no longer accept justifications.

The therapy applicable to this condition is very clear: either procedures are changed, or get staff that really knows how to implement them and understands that what is in their  hands is the health of Panamanians.