The disinvestment in public health by the provincial administration of Axel Kicillof has once again been exposed after the Official Response Office publicly revealed the debt that the Province of Buenos Aires owes to the Garrahan Hospital for medical services provided to children from Buenos Aires.
According to the official agency, the amount owed by IOMA amounts to $9,151,216,131 and corresponds to treatments, interventions, and high-complexity services provided by the country's main pediatric hospital. The national government emphasized that this is not a “lie” or a political estimate, but figures recorded in the hospital's own current account.
The screens at Garrahan displayed the debts.
The official response came after officials linked to Kicillof's government attempted to downplay or deny the existence of the debt. However, the national Executive maintained that Garrahan had already publicly reported the situation and warned that the delay directly impacts pediatric care.
This issue particularly undermines the discourse of the Buenos Aires Kirchnerism, which often presents itself as a defender of public health while accumulating a multimillion-dollar debt with an institution that handles the most complex pediatric oncology cases in all of Argentina.
The Garrahan Hospital accounts for between 40% and 50% of the country's pediatric oncology cases and receives over 500 new patients each year. Thanks to high-complexity treatments and state-of-the-art technology, the medical center achieves survival rates close to 80%.
The national government also detailed what concrete impact the payment of those funds withheld by the Province would have. Among other issues, they noted that the pending prosthetics for 814 children who have been waiting for interventions since 2022 could be covered, many of whom are oncology patients requiring urgent reconstructive surgeries.
Thousands of sessions of chemotherapy, precision radiotherapy, and immunotherapies applied at the Comprehensive Care Center for Hemato-Oncological Patients (CAIPHO) could also be financed, in addition to very high-cost medications used in advanced pediatric treatments.
The national government also recalled that it recently incorporated a next-generation linear accelerator at Garrahan, the only one in Latin America, intended for precision oncology treatments. This is in addition to investments in surgical microscopes, high-complexity beds, bone marrow transplants, and targeted therapies.
Another highlighted point was the comprehensive assistance to families traveling from different parts of the country to care for their children at Garrahan. The owed resources could also be allocated to accommodation, transportation, food, and palliative care.
The office maintains that, despite the accumulated provincial debts, Javier Milei's government continues to guarantee the hospital's operation, the delivery of medications, and the continuity of services. In this context, they demanded that each jurisdiction “fulfill its commitments” and stop politically exploiting a situation that directly affects sick children.
