The IESS measure will have a term of 60 days and aims to make access to medical supplies and equipment viable. | Photo: EFE

Quito, July 17 (RHC)-- Ecuador's health entities that make up the Directorate of Individual and Family General Health Insurance are this Thursday under a state of emergency after being declared by the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS).

The IESS measure will have a term of 60 days and aims to facilitate access to medical supplies and equipment in the face of the growing shortages faced by the hospital institutions of that system.

The resolution establishes the centralization of the sale of medicines through the Rural Social Security Directorate. However, it does not specify up to what amount it could be accessed.

For his part, the country's Vice-President, Alfredo Borrero, pointed out that the situation is similar in the Ministry of Public Health, the IESS, as well as in the Army and Police health care centers.

In this sense, the Ecuadorian official pointed out that "all the institutions of the Integral Health Network have declared an emergency in their operational units in order to work and solve the problems."

Last June 17th, the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute was declared in a state of emergency when the health system was going through almost the same difficulties as now.

In the meantime, citizens are demanding the stabilization of the medical service in general, but the pharmaceutical service with greater emphasis, in the midst of the severe crisis that the nation has been going through for the last few months.