Incan patients denounce irregular charges, demand guarantees in public healthcare

Users of the National Cancer Institute (Incan) expressed their outrage following the detention and indictment of an official suspected of operating an irregular charging scheme within the healthcare facility. Patients warned against allowing institution workers to leverage supposed influence to demand payments in exchange for speeding up consultations, providing medications, or pre-scheduling surgeries.

In this regard, they recalled that access to healthcare is guaranteed by the National Constitution and that services in public hospitals should be free. They consider it inadmissible that patients have to pay for priority treatment over others who wake up early or travel from different parts of the country to attend their appointments.

Some users reported that, despite having scheduled appointments, they often end up being seen several hours late or even have to reschedule. "There are people who have an appointment at 9:00 AM and are only seen at 3:00 PM, or their appointments are simply changed," they questioned.

The complainants also lamented that, according to the accusations, the official identified as Pánfilo Saldívar allegedly offered, even through WhatsApp messages, to expedite appointments or arrange medications in exchange for money.

The case is being investigated by prosecutor Luis Piñánez, who explained that, after the indictment of Pánfilo Saldívar for influence peddling, the Public Ministry is analyzing other possible offenses, such as aggravated passive bribery and extortion. The case began with a patient's complaint who required emergency surgery. According to his testimony, he felt practically forced to negotiate irregular payments. According to the details in the indictment, the complainant allegedly paid G. 1,000,000 for a first surgery, while the suspect demanded another G. 4,000,000. Additionally, for a second surgery and medication, an additional payment of G. 2,000,000 was allegedly requested.

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Hay personas que tienen turno a las 09:00 y recién son atendidas a las 15:00, o directamente les cambian la fecha