They fired a key molecular biologist

As part of a new round of public sector layoffs promoted by Javier Milea’s government, termination notices began arriving this weekend. 88 employees of Posadas HospitalMany of them are specialists, social workers and laboratory workers from the huge health center that depends on the nation. The Ministry of Health argued that these people were violating the terms of the presentation, which is contested by those concerned. Among them, a molecular biologist whose release means a problem for conducting detection and follow-up studies of patients with leukemia and lymphoma.

Clarion he talked to her. He asked to remain anonymous but agreed to share his story. For several decades, he has been doing something that very few people do: hemato-oncological molecular biology. “I don’t really know why. Maybe because my mom died of lymphoma,” he said. He joined Posadas in 2013.

Since her boss retired in 2021 and since her coworker resigned in 2022, until this Saturday when she learned of the layoff, she said she was the only person at the National Hospital “Professor Alejandro Posadas” who processed samples from patients with leukemia and lymphoma. His job was to confirm diagnoses – for better or for worse – and monitor patients undergoing treatment. Patients who could be children, adolescents or adults.

Just as the Garrahan Hospital is the reference center of the country in this matter, Posadas (a hospital which, aside from the taint of being the seat of the “VIP Vaccination Center”, is a medical center with a huge reputation) since last June has the same category for not so young children: is a national reference center in adolescent hemato-oncology.

However, this specialist for these purposes she just got fired. Word spread on Monday afternoon that hospital management would reassess his situation. Although the hospital management also assured that the team consists of five experts, the rest of the group will have other specialties.

Despite the official argument that she was fired, the woman told this media outlet that she was impressed that she had been demoted in March 40 hours of workas if it were missing. “I was never absent,” he said.

For more than a decade, he had to sign annual contracts, but in January his contract was renewed for three months, as were other employees in various areas of the wide public administration.

“When I signed the contract in January, they responded to my request that, given my role and seniority, I had to move up a category. I signed myself as ‘attachment 4’. However, I continued to charge as “appendix 3”. Plus there was this hourly discount, two issues that I complained about and didn’t get a response to,” he said.

Then, considering the hypotheses, he remembered something that might matter: “Maybe they based it on me being late for two weeks. I had my 3 year old daughter’s garden landscaped, something that is expressly permitted and for which I have submitted all the paperwork to justify it.

Although the presidency warned of a new round of layoffs, the Ministry of Health did not announce the 88 layoffs of Posadas, news that circulated on social media in recent hours.

After being consulted to verify the information, the portfolio led by Mario Russo explained that “the non-renewal of the contracts established at the Posadas Hospital is based on a serious breach of regulations found attendance control biometric system implemented by the General Directorate of Human Resources.

“They include, among others, non-compliance with schedules, high absenteeism at work, non-fulfillment of assigned tasks,” they added. If he could know Clarionother areas affected by layoffs were infrastructure, maintenance and pharmaceuticals. The ministry assured that “those released they represent 2 percent of the 4,500 staff the hospital has”.

They also clarified that “the working day according to collective labor agreements 1133/09 and 2098/08 is 8 hours a day160 hours per week” and stated that “instances were found where compliance with the schedule was not achieved 4 hours a day” that “more than 200 monthly overtime hours were found to be collected, representing over 4 million pesos in salaries for maintenance staff” as well as “overtime payments to non-medical staff of over 566 million pesos per month during the previous administration.”

“This amount that was spent unjustified overtime“, represents the equivalent of two months of purchasing drugs for the hospital,” they compared from Zdraví and concluded a written communication with Clarion They claim that “absences and non-compliance with schedules by representatives whose contracts have not been renewed threaten the normal functioning of the institution”.

The hospital management said that “these employees reported to work in June of this year only 40 days“.

A shared case is that of a female researcher who was alone in her field performing daily tasks with considerable workload. According to him, taking a vacation or getting sick was always problematic. “They hired monotributists to replace them, but they weren’t always good or they didn’t have any experience,” she explained somewhat indignantly but with relative calm, two days after learning of her dismissal. As someone who understands the paradoxical disappointment of Argentina’s public sector.

And paradoxically, these layoffs are known just a week after the Natalí Dafne Flexer Foundation, a major contributor to Posadas Hospital, held a big party to commemorate its 30 years of work.

The event took place in the Libertador Room of the Sheraton Hotel and was hosted by journalists Mario Massaccesi and Sandra Borghi. The goal was to raise funds to build a Differentiated Care Service for adolescents and young people with cancer at Posadas Hospital.

However, as could be ascertained, the Posadas hospital authorities had already been informed by the laboratory that the said discharge the molecular biology section is discussed hemato-oncological.

Another visible paradox is related to the fact that this news falls only one day after 11,000 people The 4,657 vacancies for medical residencies in 2024 will be contested in a tough test years in the making, plus 1,125 nursing positions to cover fewer than 400 residencies; and 151 biochemistry, for 169 vacancies throughout the territory of Argentina, as announced early this Monday by the Ministry of Health.

There are high expectations in these tests, because one of the big problems of the health system is the lack of doctors in public hospitals, where the shortage affects the most sensitive areas. The ministry says it will try to coordinate with the provinces on the shortage.

Against claims for non-compliance On the government’s side, on the other hand, claims arise – as happened in the recent past – for various cases of dismissals, which could not always be explained by official arguments. The victims in these cases assure that such a violation did not occur or even did they stood out especially in your work.