THE MINISTER of Health and other authorities in the sector paint for us a reality very distant from that experienced in the country's public hospitals. All personnel working in these institutions are exposed, but especially so is the front line defense.

 Its deficiencies are of unacceptable inhumanity; they run the risk of catching and infecting third parties due to the lack of protection supplies. The times that bureaucratic procedures take are implausible. These deficiencies tell us about the sacrifice of hospital personnel who put the health of the population above their own safety. Politicians, on the other hand, only give us excuses. Their justifications do not explain, for example, why a modular hospital works without the countersignature of the Comptroller, but purchases to protect health personnel must meet every last bureaucratic requirement, despite the fact that they have begun to catch and even die; or why some purchases go through the long process and others simply do not even appear in Panama Compra. This indolence has turned out to be much worse than the pandemic itself. Now, the minister has promised to solve such a serious situation. For the good of the country, so be it. LA PRENSA, Jul, 27