“It is shameful that access to the right to health requires legal action”: Office of the Ombudsman

The Office of the Ombudsman sent a strong message to the actors of the Colombian health system because of the precariousness of the service provided in the country. The entity said that it is not admissible for citizens to take legal action to access their rights.

The entity indicated that this call for attention is made within the framework of the launch of the comprehensive brigades for the promotion and prevention of the rights to health and social security in 2022. In this first cycle, the Office of the Ombudsman is addressing complaints from users in Caquetá, Huila and Putumayo.

The Office of the Ombudsman assured that last year several of these days were brought forward in different regions of the country and thanks to them it was possible to resolve 90% of citizens' complaints. However, he pointed out that the ideal is that citizens should not have to resort to guardianship actions, nor to the direct intervention of the Office of the Ombudsman in order to guarantee the fundamental right to health.

It was detailed that the main vulnerable behaviors are denial or lack of opportunity in procedures, surgeries, laboratory tests and diagnostic imaging, which account for 29% of cases. The list includes the lack of opportunity in appointments with specialists (24%), and the denial, lack of opportunity or partial delivery of drugs included in the basic health plan (20%).

Against this background, the Ombudsman asked the territorial authorities to exercise the functions and powers granted to them by law for the proper compliance required of the IPS and EPS. He also reiterated the importance of designing and integrating all municipal government plans with the departmental health plan.

The advocate addressed the Health Benefit Plan Administering Entities directly and reminded them of three of their responsibilities:

1) Ensure an adequate and geo-referenced health provider network, according to the address of its members

2) Adopt conducive measures to avoid the interruption of treatment and rehabilitation of patients

3) Carry out quality and compliance audits to your healthcare provider network, among others.

While these problems are being resolved, the Office of the Ombudsman assured that it will continue to train and train people in mechanisms for the protection of human rights with an emphasis on health and social security. In addition, they will hold dialogue meetings in harmonious collaboration with the representatives, judges, health secretaries and the teachers' union leadership to coordinate actions for the protection of rights.

It should be noted that between January and May of this year alone 30,164 citizens filed guardianships against EPS, while in 2020 81,899 of these appeals were registered, according to Change.org, which collected data from the Ombudsman's Office, the Constitutional Court and the National Superintendency of Health.

In addition to recourse to guardianship resources, citizens have begun to demand respect for the right to health through digital platforms such as Change.org, in which, between 2020 and 2021, 879 petitions were created requiring SuperSalud and EPS to authorize treatment, delivery use of medications and performing surgeries.

Of the 879 initiatives, which were supported, signed and shared by more than 5'587,000 citizens, only 48 responses received direct responses from the authorities, less than 6%.

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