Medical staff of the Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez backed the general manager, Jaime Nieto Zermeño, after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed him for the deabasto and announced an investigation for alleged agreements with a laboratory for the distribution of medicines for children with cancer.
A video posted by pediatrician Gabriel Lara shows hospital workers applauding the manager and supporting him with cries of “You’re not alone, you’re not alone.”
Read: AMLO blames the director of the Children’s Hospital for the need for children’s medicines with cancer
Mr. Dr. Jaime Nieto Zermeño Director HIM #NoEstaSolo !! pic.twitter.com/Q2xrUN1nn9
— Gabrich M.D. ® (@drdebebes) January 24, 2020
According to a report of the newspaper Reforma, Nieto Zermeño convened all the staff on January 23 to a briefing, to explain that it was open to an inquiry, following the indictment of President López Obrador.
The director argued that it is false that there is only enough medication for three days and responded to the president that they have a total supply for just over a month to care for children who require chemotherapy.
Nieto Zermeño stated that only Vincristina was missing, although, he said, “only seven children, out of 800 patients in control, were delayed by a week. And it’s absolutely false what’s been said that only a part of the drug had arrived. We receive 449 doses, and we have a consumption of 400 per month, plus in a few weeks they will arrive for the next few months”.
On the causes of the faults that have occurred in the hospital explained that it is a failure of the distributor, Safe, a subsidiary of Pisa Laboratories. “He has not delivered them, for whatever reasons but has not delivered them, and the federal government, the Ministry of Health and the Coordination of Institutes have made great efforts, collaborating with us too, to have alternatives. Drugs that are not imported have been imported. And yes, make it clear that de Vincristina the deabasto is all over the world.”
He even added that Federico Gómez has agreements with academic hospitals in the United States and there they are living something very similar. The manager explained that despite this deabasto, it was possible to bring medicine from Spain to guarantee 100% of the chemotherapy to the children.
Regarding what was pointed out by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at his morning conference, in which he blamed him for the drug deserving and announced an investigation against him, Zermeño commented that the president has every right to investigate “and we are totally open to investigation.”
Although he stated that it is not he who has a contract with the distributors, but the hospital, as an institution. “We were already ordered to change them probably in three months, but I cannot fail to maintain a contract authorized by the Ministry of Health, and that while it ended on December 31, it has been authorized to extend for three months while the consolidated purchase of medicines is arranged.”
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