Add source Login
'Patients just die without medication' - Guayaquil residents decry health system collapse amid Ecuador's extended state of emergency

'Patients just die without medication' - Guayaquil residents decry health system collapse amid Ecuador's extended state of emergency

"Ecuador's Social Security Institute (IESS) has extended the country's state of emergency for another month amid an ongoing shortage of medicines and medical supplies, according to a resolution issued on Thursday. The measure, first declared on September 26 for 60 days, failed to resolve the supply crisis within the initial timeframe. Footage filmed on Friday shows the Teodoro Maldonado Carbo Hospital in southern Guayaquil in deteriorating condition as patients entered the facility, while others were forced to buy medicines at nearby pharmacies due to ongoing shortages. Luis Llerena, a citizen of Guayaquil, said medical supplies are urgently needed as illnesses spread through the population, urging people to keep fighting amid the worsening crisis. "The illnesses people have now - flu, other infections, body aches, vomiting, diarrhoea - and there are no medicines. You have to go buy them elsewhere. And what are we supposed to do? We just have to keep fighting, and that's how people are living," said Llerena. Another resident warned that the shortage must be resolved urgently. "This [shortage] has to be solved, because one has no money, and how is one supposed to give medicines to the patients? That is when the patients die," she said. A cancer patient at a public hospital said her daughters have to go into debt to buy her medicines amid widespread shortages in Ecuadorian hospitals. "Sometimes you just don't have the money. Being retired or living on a small pension doesn't mean you always have cash available. And it happens - you need the medicines. I have been, I am, I was, and I will be in the hospital, because I have cancer. So I have to continue with the treatment," she added. Ecuador's medicine shortage is largely attributed to low budget execution and delays in public procurement. Since late 2024, the government has slashed the public healthcare budget - by over $400 million, according to some reports - further straining a system already weakened by years of underfunding. By November, the Health Ministry had spent only about 45 per cent of the funds allocated for medicines and medical supplies, leaving hospitals and health centres without essential products."