The problems with the supplies begin to cause problems in the operating rooms / the DIA
Cardiovascular operations are beginning to be rescheduled in different clinics in the City, according to sources from the Association of Clinics of the province of Buenos Aires, District 1 (Acliba 1). The main reason is the inputs, which are becoming scarce, as is the case with oxygenators.
According to the owner of Acliba 1, Daniel Reija, in the case of cardiovascular surgeries, two oxygenators are needed. One to be used in the surgical intervention itself, and the other for backup, in case there is a failure in the main oxygenator or it runs out.
This situation occurs in a large part of the country: the stock of supplies for cardiovascular surgeries in public and private centers are not having the expected response and this month the situation progressed in such a way that in cases in which the patient’s health status can wait, surgery is rescheduled. In our region, sources from Acliba and the Federation of Clinics of the province of Buenos Aires (Fecliba) agreed on such a scenario.
The replacement orders for essential disposable materials for this type of intervention are every week or every fortnight, when before they were for a month and made it possible to plan the procedures in the longer term. In addition, the availability of these inputs is not being sufficient for the equipment to be able to comply with the scheduled operations or requires an extra effort to try to replace them.
The situation had been warned by the professional association that represents cardiovascular surgeons as soon as the last month of 2022 began. They went further and stated that “if it is not solved, it can put the lives of patients at risk.”
Oxygenators, catheters in their different models, pathways, coronary bypass devices (shunts), syringes and percutaneous sutures are among the missing imported products.
“We are touching a stage that forces us as a professional association to go out and warn what is happening. In health care, especially in areas such as cardiovascular surgery, one cannot wait for the last box to be opened before acting. You have to have foresight ”, it was indicated in journalistic statements from the Argentine College of Cardiovascular Surgeons (Caccv).
It should be noted that private clinics in the province of Buenos Aires are going through a more than complex moment with respect to their economies, as this newspaper published in previous editions. One of the points that stand out, among many, is “the behavior of certain suppliers who take advantage of a situation of scarcity and put exorbitant prices on the products,” according to what was pointed out from the sanatorium sector.
In addition to supplies for surgical interventions, there is also a lack of items for ophthalmology and gynecology.
As explained in different sources related to health, in the last two or three decades the country lost the internal market for the production of national medical supplies. “Before, there were Argentine pacemakers and prostheses, but the country stopped producing them.” Today a pacemaker can cost $7,000 and a valve $5,000.
