Complaints over unpaid patient care at Health center

A group of officials from the Pacora Health Center denounced the failure to pay overtime reports TVN. They assure that they have not received their payments for three months and the health authorities do not give them an answer despite the fact that there is an item to cover these extraordinary shifts.

Gloria Villarreal from the medical records department of the health center explained that they have always been paid for their overtime shifts, however, this year they stopped receiving their payments from the month of September and since then, no authority from the health region of Panama East has communicated with them to give them a clear answer.

She said that at the beginning of the year an exclusive item was assigned to pay for the extraordinary shifts and that now, after spending three months in uncertainty and fulfilling all their duties, they have been told that there is no money to pay the extra  hours until April 2023. According to reports, there are more than 100 officials including medical records, pharmacy, laboratory, nursing, doctors, manual workers and drivers, who are affected by the situation.

In the midst of the complaint, Villarreal wanted to make it clear that this protest is not a retaliatory measure against the institution, but a call to comply with the rights that correspond to them by law. She stressed that no official works more simply because he wants to, but because but because the health service lacks enough personnel to care for people who require medical attention after 3 in the afternoon.

She said that what most upsets the staff is that no authority has approached them to give them an explanation for why they have not been paid.

Even so, care at the health center has not been suspended and patients are being seen regularly.