Ecuador patients pushed towards black market as health system buckles
Patients living with kidney disease, HIV and other serious illnesses say Ecuador's public health system is failing them as medicine shortages worsen and private dialysis clinics close over alleged government payment delays.
"The Ecuadorian state's failure to pay dialysis clinics causes many clinics to close their doors," said kidney patient Alejandro Solano. "Referrals are sometimes made to another clinic that is in the same situation," he added.
Solano said the shortage of essential medicines had forced some patients to seek supplies on the black market.
"As ironic as it sounds, we have to go as far as the black market to be able to get supplies," he said. He also alleged that treatment disruptions had cost lives, saying he had seen fellow dialysis patients die because of a lack of medical monitoring.
Wilmer Bazurto, who is living with kidney disease and HIV, said the closure of his clinic affected hundreds of patients and warned that shortages of immune-system supplements were putting lives at risk.
"It is leading us to death little by little, and I do not know how much longer we will live," he said.
A video from Viory also showed patients waiting outside public hospitals for hours, with some elderly people seated in wheelchairs under the sun as they sought medical care. Patients accused the government of failing to respond to the worsening healthcare crisis.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
