Is Mutual SER EPS on top of the Constitution and the orders of the jueces of the Republic?

Veeduría en Salud Color Esperanza y Las Noticias Cartagena questions the contempt of a guardianship sentence that ordered the delivery of a specialized wheel in 48 hours.

La Veeduría en Salud Color Esperanza y Las Noticias Cartagena expresses its deep concern over a judicial decision that reveals an event of enormous seriousness: the failure to comply with a guardianship sentence intended to protect the fundamental right to the health of a Colombian citizen.

The Juzgado Doce Civil Municipal de Cartagena declared in contempt the Coordinadora Regional Bolívar Norte de Mutual SER EPS, after establishing that the entity failed to comply with a judicial order expressed that it otorgaba four and eight (48) hours to authorize and supply a specialized wheel, prescribed by the doctor treating the señor William Jesús Mercado Waters

The judicial order was clear and did not admit interpretations. It did not authorize new procedures, did not order additional medical assessments, nor did it allow the EPS to re-discuss a clinical decision previously adopted by the treating doctor and supported by a guardianship sentence.

However, as stated in the judicial provision, the EPS response consisted of scheduling new consultations with specialists, an action that the order considered dilatory in concluding that there was no test for effective compliance with the order given.
As a result of non-compliance, the Court declared contempt and imposed a fine equivalent to ten (10) monthly minimum wages in force, a sanction that must be assumed with personal resources by the responsible employee, as determined by the judicial authority.

A question that highlights this case
From the Veeduría en Salud Color Esperanza y Las Noticias Cartagena a question arises that deserves a clear answer from the competent authorities:
Can an EPS disregard a guardianship sentence and replace a court order with administrative procedures without this generating deeper institutional consequences?
When a constitutional judge orders the protection of a fundamental right within a permanent period of 48 hours and that decision is not fulfilled, the problem is no longer exclusively administrative.
It becomes a matter of respect for the Political Constitution, for the judicial authority and, above all, for the human dignity of patients.

A case that cannot be seen as an isolated man
This episode could not be analyzed in isolation either.

La Veeduría en Salud Color Esperanza permanently receives complaints from users of Mutual SER EPS in Cartagena and in municipalities in the south of Bolívar, which report barriers to accessing medicines, health technologies, authorizations, remissions, procedures and appointments with specialists.

Each unjustified delay has real consequences.
Every authorization that does not arrive in a timely manner means more pain.
Each unfulfilled medical order deteriorates a person’s health.
And each judicial sentence that is disregarded sends a worrying message to the Social State of Law.

Called the control bodies
Therefore, we request the Superintendencia Nacional de Salud, the Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, the Procuraduría General de la Nación, the Defensoría del Pueblo and other control bodies that evaluate this case with maximum rigor and strengthen the surveillance mechanisms in the face of compliance with judicial decisions by the EPS.
Health cannot be subject to endless procedures.

Medical orders cannot be converted into simple archived documents.
Guardianship sentences cannot be treated as optional recommendations.

When a judge grants 48 hours to protect a fundamental right and this order is not fulfilled, on the ground a judicial provision is disregarded: it also puts life, dignity and confidence of citizens in justice at risk

In a Social State of Derecho, nothing can be above the Constitution, nothing can be above the decisions of the jueces of the Republic and, much less, above the fundamental right to the health of Colombians.

La Veeduría en Salud Color Esperanza y Las Noticias Cartagena will continue to exercise social control, denouncing all actions that limit effective access to health services and firmly defending the rights of patients.