​04/30/2020

Press Release No. 211, 2020

- Minister Fernando Ruiz called on mayors and governors to leverage resources and support the payment to workers.

Bogotá, April 30, 2020. The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz, appearing in the Prevention and Action program with President Iván Duque, explained the progress in the transfer of resources to settle outstanding debts with health workers in the country.

"Among all the difficulties that we have experienced in this time of pandemic, we can also report on positive issues. We inquired, province by province, hospital by hospital, totaling the amount of the debts overdue with health workers, under the different hiring modalities" said the head of the health ministry. This amounted to 460 billion pesos for 23,000 health workers.

"The contributions of Ministry of Finance, and under the orders of the President, have served to collect the required money; and a resolution is being issued for the payment of the debts that have been caused from January to March this year, that are worth $273 billion."

This amount will pay the first part and the call by the minister is for the governors and mayors to leverage resources to support the workers. "At a second moment we will be under a strict legal framework trying to complete the remaining resources," he added.

On the other hand, considering that the cash flows of the health institutions have diminished because of the low provision of services, Minister Ruiz said that the process of evaluating the purchase of portfolio had closed today.

This mechanism consists of the Health System Resources Administrator (Adres) assuming the payment of EPS debts with hospitals, but later, the EPSs are committed to paying back these resources.

"798 applications came in, for an estimated amount of 700 billion pesos. With this, we created a faster and more agile mechanism to send the resources directly to the IPSs so that they can be used appropriately in expansion projects and personal protective equipment," said Ruiz.

Tests

While on the program, Minister Ruiz also explained the process for administering a diagnostic test for covid-19.

"A test is no different from any other laboratory test. It is conducted in an entity supplied with virologists and bacteriologists who carry out analyses. When we talk about PCR tests, this refers to a sample taken of the pharynx or nose with a swab seeking material that may contain the virus. It is put into a tube containing a gel material keeping the virus until it reaches the laboratory," he said.

In the laboratory, he indicated, a genome extraction technique is used, in order to see what is in the sample. "Subsequently, we compare the genetic material that may be in the sample with the genes that we know about the virus. If they coincide, we can say that the sample has tested positive," he said.

Finally, the process is closed with the preparation of a report and filling in forms for the country's surveillance system, and the result is sent to the attached entity.