The Ministry of Health (Minsal) has been actively working on a strategy to reduce waiting times in the Chilean Public Assistance Network. That is why in the last period it injected a sum of $35 billion to meet the high demand in health left by the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile.
For this reason, the agency made an initial diagnosis: the Government received a care network in the context of a pandemic, with fatigued and overworked staff. However, the health teams maintain a high level of production and care could be recovered. In addition, the accumulated demand in the years 2020 and 2021 is added to that generated naturally by a network that is reactivated.
Added to this background is the new complexity of the patients, since in relation to the year 2019, in 2022 there has been a 15% higher monetary cost to admit a person. According to Minsal sources, this is because more procedures are required, more specialties and the beds are more complex, requiring new technologies. In addition, there is a secular effect regarding the aging of the population.
Strategies
To solve this, the state body has tried to recover surgical activity and increase the capacity and working times of the hospital wards. As a result of the same, the medical agenda was opened outside normal hours, that is, after 5:00 p.m. and even on weekends. In addition, medical operations have been deployed throughout the national territory to improve care with specialists, disused infrastructures have been set up and regional resolution centers have been installed to perform major outpatient surgeries (discharge is given the same day of the operation ) and endoscopic procedures.
Results
The numbers have been positive. By the year 2022, the operations registered 12,858 consultations for new specialties and 3,811 surgeries, surpassing the statistics of 2019. Urgent care also increased, with a higher proportion of primary health care. In addition, zero copayment was added as an incentive for urgency, that is, the operations are free if you enter through this means.
On the other hand, it is important to mention that home care has increased, so the network grew without increasing the number of hospitals.
Finally, Minsal sources indicated that the universality of primary care will be launched at the end of this month, which means an extension of hours, better scheduling and ease of requesting hours, among other measures. In addition, they assured that work is being done to improve the information platform.
