Bolsonaro management discarded 1 million insulin pens – 03/20/2023 – Daily life

The Ministry of Health discarded 999,700 quick-acting insulin pens during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) administration.

Valued at almost BRL 15 million, the products used for diabetes expired from September 2020 to June 2021. The lots were part of a purchase of 4 million tubes, made in 2018.

As shown to Sheetthe data on the lost stock of Health, which are no longer confidential, still show that 39 million immunizers against Covid were discarded by the end of February, valued at R$ 2 billion.

In the Bolsonaro administration, high-cost therapies, medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS, among other products, were also lost.

Medical and patient associations even warned the ministry, before the expiration date, that there was excessive bureaucracy to gain access to the product.

To receive doses of rapid-acting insulin analogues, the patient needed to be seen by an endocrinologist. That doctor would have to fill out an extensive report.

President of the Brazilian Society of Diabetes, physician Levimar Araújo said that the correct thing would be to release insulin to the patient through a simpler prescription.

“Sometimes the doctor needs to fill out a six-page document. I became a doctor to examine patients, not for that,” he said.

He still points out as a barrier the requirement for patients to renew the prescription to get new tubes.

In early March, the ministers of the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) opened a special audit to assess responsibility for the mismanagement of Health inventories.

One of the points highlighted in the court’s audit is the loss of insulin.

“The cause of this loss is associated with deficiencies in hiring planning”, pointed out the court technicians.

The batch was the first of this type of insulin purchased by Saúde.

For the court, as there was no “accurate and reliable information to define the quantity, or historical records of consumption”, the purchase should have been made in installments, to avoid the end of the validity of the products.

The ministry also incinerated other types of insulin during the Bolsonaro administration, in addition to the infusion pump and needles used in the pen. These losses, however, were in smaller amounts, valued at R$ 13 thousand.

Only the incineration of expired insulin pens cost R$ 64 thousand.

According to physician Levimar Araújo, fast-acting insulin helps to reduce episodes of hypoglycemia.

Without the product, those who live with diabetes have a greater chance of blindness, amputations, among other complications of the disease, says Araujo.

In a note, Health said that the scenario of loss of vaccines, medicines and other inputs “reflects the neglect of the previous government, which denied the transition team information on stocks and validity of these products.”

The folder states that it works to adjust stocks and improve the distribution of products.

There is also a search for a solution agreed with the councils of state and municipal health secretaries in order to avoid further waste.

Questioned during the week about the losses, former minister Marcelo Queiroga (who commanded the portfolio from March 2021 to December 2022) stated that he does not have data on stocks and that this information is under the care of the technical areas.

Luiz Henrique Mandetta, the first Minister of Health in the Bolsonaro government (from January 2019 to April 2020), said that during the period in which he commanded the portfolio, efforts were made to adapt the management of inventories, by transferring products from warehouses in Rio de Janeiro. Janeiro for a plant in Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo.

Current federal deputy Eduardo Pazuello (PL-RJ), who was also Minister of Health in the Bolsonaro government (from June 2020 to March 2021), did not comment.

SUS lost stocks

Discarded products from 2019

vaccines for Covid-19: 39 million doses / BRL 2 billion

Others vaccines: 7.4 million bottles*/BRL 128 million

Pen of insulin: 1 million units/BRL 15 million

Therapies of rare diseases: at least 12 types / BRL 13 million

Others inputs: about 96 million

total lost: about BRL 2.2 billion