COFEPRIS: audits of dental care clinics

www.medigraphic.org.mx The General Health Law, in its article 17 bis, specifies that the Ministry of Health will exercise powers of regulation, control and health promotion through a body called the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS), whose functions are to identify and evaluate risks to human health, propose national policies to protect against health risks in health establishments, exercise sanitary control and surveillance, impose sanctions and apply security measures, all the above applied in matters of its competence. COFEPRIS is an administrative authority that acts on the basis of Article 16 of the Constitution, which specifies the following: «The administrative authority may conduct home visits only to verify that sanitary regulations have been complied with and demand the display of the indispensable books and papers to verify that they have complied with tax provisions, subject to the respective laws and the prescribed formalities». Therefore, it is possible that said commission checks the health facilities randomly and without prior notice with the sole purpose of verifying that said establishment is in accordance with the law and the health professional has the obligation to allow this veri cation to be carried out in an expedited manner. This random inspection carried out by COFEPRIS is what is known by law as an act of nuisance, which is specified in article 266 of the National Code of Criminal Procedures and refers to the preventive restriction of a right, with prior authorization from the competent authority, provided that it is by means of a written order that grounds and motivates the legal cause of the procedure. This means that any competent authority has the autonomy to request the review of a health facility even against the owner’s will, in order to verify that everything is in order to provide dental care to the population, and in case of not complying with the minimum necessary regulations, offer observations and conditions that invite the owner to correct the detected errors, adhering to regulations to avoid being penalized for providing health services that could be risky for the population. ATTRIBUTIONS OF COFEPRIS