The Chilean Ministry of Health (Minsal) begins a new stage in its telehealth strategy.
The Family Health Centers (CESFAM) in Chile are an important part of the health system, since their task is to divide geographical areas according to the characteristics of each region and provide adequate medical care. In addition, another of its objectives is that the relationship between the health team and the population be closer.
On July 8, the North CESFAM of the Los Angeles commune, in the province of Biobío, officially announced the operation of the telehealth strategy. This initiative of the Ministry of Health seeks to improve remote care services and CESFAM North of Los Angeles was selected to develop the pilot plan of this strategy that seeks to be replicated at the national level.
In this way, the pilot plan will implement a virtual platform that seeks to optimize resources and better manage remote care. “We are very, very happy. This is a platform that we have been testing so that, effectively, it can be filmed and we realize that it is absolutely useful. What interests us is to give more dignity to the people who are treated in public care and, with this, a good part of that is being resolved, "explained the mayor of the commune Esteban Krause.
For his part, the Undersecretary of Assistance Networks of the Minsal, Fernando Araos, commented that Los Angeles will be the first CESFAM, at the national level, that has implemented this new strategy and that the future plan is to extend the initiative to more than 20 CESFAMs. at the end of 2022, and more than 50 for the next year.
“With this strategy we are reaching more than 2 million people who can access, through a digital platform, to apply and in this way we can see today how the typical lines that we saw, previously, to look for phone numbers have decreased. attention. We hope that, with this, it has been reduced significantly and we hope that it will be more for the benefit of all the neighbors and neighbors, "explained Araos.
The presentation of this plan was attended by Mario Cruz Peñate, WHO/WHO representative in Chile, Soledad Martínez, head of the Minsal Primary Care Division (DIVAP), and María José Letelier, head of the Digital Health Department. .
Martínez affirmed that this initiative represents a paradigm shift to put the patient at the center of care, and design the health system around users thanks to the incorporation of health technologies.
Instead, Peñate recognized the work carried out by CESFAM, and the health authorities and institutions involved, such as the School of Public Health of the University of Chile.
Letelier celebrated the advances made in the use of technologies during the pandemic. "Today we have a health team and a population that is much closer to the use of technologies and also allows us to use them for their own benefit," he concluded.
