Panama's president, Laurentino Cortizo, approved the law that promotes the creation of a Telehealth system across the country.
Bill 313 which was proposed by Panama's Legislative Assembly in October 2020, has been sanctioned by Panama's President Laurentino Cortizo. The main purpose of the law is to decrease the workload in hospitals through remote medicine modalities such as teleconsultations and telemedicine. The approval of the law seeks to support the Ministry of Health (Minsa) and the Social Security Fund (CSS), in their service delivery tasks.
“The Law aims to develop Telehealth, as a method to support the Minsa and the CSS in health matters, with the purpose of helping to carry out preventive and/or initial diagnoses more quickly, monitoring patients remotely,” informed the Presidency of Panama.
Cortizo explained that this is a great law that will bring health services closer to patients in vulnerable areas. “Today I sanctioned the Law that establishes the guidelines for the development of Telehealth in Panama, a law that modernizes access to health and allows Panamanians to have initial preventive diagnoses or patient monitoring more quickly, using technology,” he said on his Twitter account.
The President of the Central American country highlighted the work carried out by Congressman Raúl Fernández, main promoter of the law in the Legislative Assembly: “I would like to acknowledge Congressman Fernández, the president of the Health Commission, Víctor Castillo and the entire National Assembly for voting in favor of this law,” he said.
The congressman was present during the passing of the law and expressed the following via Twitter: “Telemedicine will be a tool that will allow all those healthcare professionals to provide their services remotely. This law aims to achieve a fully online healthcare system, where healthcare professionals provide their services remotely”.
On the other hand, Luis Francisco Sucre, Minister of Health, highlighted the relevance of the application of health technologies in the current context: “At this time the COVID is forcing us to use technology and it is time to evolve.”
