Company owned by separated health officials in center of scandal

Company owned by separated health officials in center of scandal

Sermedic Panama – a company to which two senior officials of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) are linked and who are now separated from their positions – was constituted as a clinic but was not approved to function as a laboratory, an aspect under investigation.

“As of today, the National Health Directorate, has to give us that report,” said the Health Minister, Luis Francisco Sucre, on Friday morning .

“The clinic was working, what was not authorized is to function as a laboratory,” the minister, told Telemetro Report .

Leonardo Labrador and Ana Lorena Chang, who until yesterday held the positions of National Director of Epidemiology and Regional Head of Public Health of the Minsa, respectively, are being investigated for their links with the  company, which carried out swabs to enter the Pacific islands.

 Melva Cruz, general director of Health, said that the Technical Health Council verifies, as part of its functions, that laboratories that request permits to carry out these activities comply with the established requirements.

On TVN Noticias, Cruz admitted that, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, these processes have taken a while. S that the company to which Labrador and Chang (who are married) are linked made a request for an inspection in April of this year.

At the end of  June, the team that showed up, found it closed since it supposedly did not coincide with the opening hours of the premises. Therefore, the Technical Health Council has not given them the operating permit, that is, they are not authorized as a laboratory.

In its social media accounts, Sermedic Panama informs that it is open from Monday to Friday, from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., while the hours on Saturdays are from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Sermedic Panama, according to its operating notice, is owned by Chang and began operations on May 19, 2019; however, in the same document it is observed that this notice was canceled to use the corporation A&L Medic, SA

A&L Medic, SA has Chang as its legal representative and began operations on December 9, 2020

The case is being investigated by the Minsa, the National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information (Antai), and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

“Unfortunately, we are talking about a conflict of interest that was not communicated and therefore they lost the trust of their immediate bosses. They have already failed in the Minsa Code of Ethics, under no circumstances do we consider that they could hold their  positions ”, Sucre commented.