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On Tuesday afternoon, the commission of the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies that reviews the constitutional accusation against the former Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, an instance where Izkia Siches, president of the Medical College, participated.
On the occasion Siches referred to the management of the pandemic and what they could observe as a Medical College from the edge of the academy and civil society, focusing on four points: Health Stewardship; transparency and information management; controversial measures; and expert recommendations not implemented.
The medical professional started by pointing out that in the first meeting she held “on March 16, in a direct conversation on my part with the President of the Republic and the Minister of Health present, it was suggested that our country, with these complexities, should have a coordinated cross-cutting team and an intersectoral approach that would allow us to visualize the difficult scenario that we were facing, trying to unify efforts and all work towards this tremendous challenge ”.
“Unfortunately that plan was not followed, but some participatory instances were formed, among them the Social Table that has had a somewhat regular operation over time, but without much impact on the taking of definitions (…). We continue to participate in them, but I must clarify from now on that the Minister of Health at that time, Mr. Jaime Mañalich, participated very little in those meetings. Unfortunately we do not have the minutes of the same because they did not exist, in a refusal of the Minister of the Interior of the time to be able to show them “, Held.
He also mentioned that “after a great effort, and in conversations with different actors, an advisory team (COVID-19 Advisory Council) was formed that could provide guidelines. This entity, which complies from our judgment with all the particular techniques to be able to make the best assessments unfortunately (…) not all of their suggestions and requests have been accepted, nor have they participated in making definitions of the most relevant points in the management of the pandemic “.
Data transparency
The president of the union indicated that there was a weak handling in terms of transparency, where there were discrepancies.
“In terms of transparency and data management (…) we have also heard the reports of an ad hoc case monitoring system, as was also announced in this investigative commission by the Minister of Health himself, without the participation of specialized offices or procedures within the Ministry of Health to follow up and subsequently investigate what the rationale behind this was ”, he assured.
Along these lines, he explained that they were presented “Disagreements between Epivigila and the laboratories, the cases of deceased, where currently the official figures are those of the DEIS. Excluding – in our opinion – these measures, actively excluded the scientific community in order to create recommendations and follow up on the challenge of the pandemic ”.
“Perhaps the most profound damage in this matter has to do with the damage to the Public Faith, to which – from our perspective – the Minister of Health, Mr. Jaime Mañalich, contributed”, he sentenced.
Parallel counting system
In the same way, Siches referred to the controversy over the parallel system that the portfolio had to count the cases, what he described as “an intrepid measure” by the Minsal.
“On October 2, the minister in this commission explained why a parallel system was created. You can understand the differences that could exist between all the cases that are taken in a PCR test and those that the medical team could finally register in Epivigila, which was the surveillance system that had computer and other problems, “he said.
Likewise, he added that “what is not understandable in his account, and lacks minimal logic from our perspective, is how an accessory system set up by the Minsal was not conservative in its analysis. From that sense, if they had the data from the laboratories, which was what allowed them to know the total universe, skipping the Epivigila platform, how could more than 30 thousand cases be ignored. In our opinion, this is an intrepid measure by the Ministry of Health and we believe that it is one of the points that should be thoroughly investigated to see and clarify whether there was intent or intent in the concealment of real figures “.
“In the story also of Mrs. Johanna Acevedo (head of the Minsal Health Planning Division) you can see how this parallel system was set up, which is understandable because all systems can be imperfect, but this was in charge of someone of direct confidence of the Minister of Health, not using the institutionality again ”, he indicated.
To the above, he specified that The system was in charge of “her chief of staff, Itziar Linazasoro, and by calling the seremias directly, in addition to receiving the data from the different laboratories. In our opinion, also considering the differences in data, it is unintelligible, I reiterate, that considering an accessory mechanism to correct the underestimations by the Ministry of Health, they were not considered despite the fact that more than 30 thousand cases were reported and about all with extreme gravity considering that in relation to the active cases the determinations were being taken by the Ministry of Health ”.
“Reckless recklessness”
Finally, Siches concludes by stating that, in the opinion of the Medical College, “there were serious and avoidable errors and omissions, contradicting the opinion of experts and established procedures, experts constituted by the Government itself. Secondly, it would have acted – and we propose this thesis – with reckless recklessness in managing the pandemic in several areas: in data management; in making early openings with the lifting of quarantines; and in dynamic quarantines, cutting communes in half or Greater Santiago in half, despite the recommendations of the Advisory Council ”.
“There could be negligence and / or inexperience by not following the recommendations of the Advisory Council and abandoning the strategy that allows the control of the pandemic”he argued.
He clarified that “in relation to data management It is necessary to determine if there was intentionality or fraud in the concealment of real figures and what is the objective of this. It is necessary to clarify these responsibilities and procedures, and this is what interests us the most as a Medical College of Chile, since this may allow the same mistakes not to be made in the future ”.
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