ALRN Health Commission inspects Walfredo Gurgel Hospital

The Health Commission of the Legislative Assembly of RN (ALRN) was at the Monsenhor Walfredo Gurgel Hospital last Friday (26) for an inspection following reports of severe shortages in the unit, made by employees and also by unions representing workers working in the unit. Reports in recent weeks indicated a lack of items such as soap, gloves, gauze, and medicines, such as dipyrone and antibiotics. Before the visit, on Friday, the Commission met with Walfredo’s management and with representatives from the State Department of Public Health (Sesap) to understand the difficulties the hospital faces.

“In recent days, this, which is the largest urgent and emergency hospital in the State, has been the target of complaints due to lack of supplies, food, medicines and broken equipment. We came to do our obligation, which is to monitor, to work together with Sesap and the management of the unit, in order to have a diagnosis of what is happening in the hospital so that we can have a more appropriate treatment within the scope of health in Rio Grande do Norte”, said deputy Galeno Torquato, president of the Commission.

During the meeting, which took place before the visit, Sesap and the hospital management acknowledged the lack of some items, but stated that this has not affected assistance to the population. “Within a universe of 3 thousand items, 5%, at most, are in a critical situation in stock, but nothing that would harm assistance. And this criticality comes from a point of fragility, which is beyond the governance of the manager, who depends on suppliers, because there are inputs with raw material problems”, said the unit’s general director, Geraldo Neto.

“We had the issue of liquid alcohol, for example, which was zeroed. Meanwhile, we had an extremely comfortable supply of hand sanitizer. And when there is an input with stock close to reaching a critical level, we start the acquisition processes and wait”, added the director. Sesap’s deputy secretary, Leidiane Fernandes, also blamed the difficulty with deadlines on the part of suppliers for the lack of items.

“What we notice within Walfredo Gurgel is that there was a lack of another input and that this is part of logistics where, often, the supplier has difficulty with deadlines, because they are specific inputs”, pointed out the manager. The president of the ALRN Health Committee highlighted that one of the biggest problems affecting State Health are budgetary problems. “In advance, I can already say that the lack of finances is a big problem in health care in RN”, commented Torquato. “We know that there is a lack of medicine because Sesap delays suppliers – some have been receiving receipts since September last year. It is very difficult for the merchant to provide [insumos] without due payment,” said the deputy. Larissa Monteiro, Health Care Coordinator at Sesap, described that a budget supplement was requested throughout the week to purchase medicines from the state network.

Furthermore, according to her, emergency processes were opened for the purchase of medicines and, in the case of Walfredo, the debts with the main supplier companies were paid off. “We made a negotiation last week and paid the main companies that supply the hospital. As a result, companies resumed deliveries last week,” she explained.

Lack of inputs
At the beginning of the week, state employees denounced, on posters posted on the facade of Hospital Walfredo Gurgel, the lack of medical and hygienic supplies, listing among them soap, gloves, gauze, alcohol, paper towels, IV poles, tissues, dipyrone, trimmers , antibiotics, bandages, urine collector and luftal. In addition to those listed at the institution’s door, the coordinator of Sindsaúde, Rosália Fernandes, denounced the lack of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and syringes, which were missing throughout the hospital, including oxacillin, teicoplanin, tigecycline, vancomycin, and 5ml and 20ml syringes.

The union organizer reported that there were supplies only accounted for for one day, with a 10 ml syringe, probe and some collectors. Everything is counted, the lack of material is already extreme,” Rosália told TRIBUNA DO NORTE. The RN Doctors’ Union (Sinmed) confirmed Sindsaúde’s complaint, through president Geraldo Ferreira. He highlighted the serious lack of inputs for the hospital to operate. “It is a very serious situation. We received testimonials from surgeons. In fact, the situation of using inappropriate material is repeating itself. In the last 10 days, wires that are missing often force the surgeon to operate with wires that are not suitable, not to mention a series of medications that are missing”, said the president of Sinmed at the beginning of the week. On Friday, Sesap’s deputy secretary, Leidiane Fernandes, said, while taking the press and the ALRN Health Committee to visit the hospital’s facilities, that the situation is different. “I personally checked the stocks, I saw that we have a reasonable supply, with a broad spectrum of antibiotics, supplies for dressings and surgeries, alcohol and soap”, she detailed.

Representative Cristiane Dantas, member of the AL Health Commission, explained that the inspection was motivated by demands and highlighted the need for action to ensure that the problems do not recur. “The objective here is to join forces and see how we can help, monitoring and demanding this new management, which took over just over 20 days ago”, he described referring to the arrival of Geraldo Neto as the hospital’s general director. “The food issue has already been resolved, we are keeping an eye on the situation in the corridors and the lack of inputs, which are still a bottleneck for the unit”, she added.