The Government of Guanajuato and the Secretariat of Health, developed strategies through telemedicine, digital media and tele-education during the health emergency.
Guanajuato state authorities established actions and processes to provide medical care to the population during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The health services of Guanajuato prepared three phases for health care: Preparedness: risks, resources, impact, preventive actions, education and training. Response: supply, planning (hospital conversion and scaling up), logistics, safe transfer, actions in the event of patient death. Recovery: continuity of service, mental health, adjustments and reconstruction.
In addition to starting the hospital conversion to receive patients with COVID-19, the Guanajuato Secretariat of Health (SSG) also provided psychological and psychiatric care. The Mental Health Network of the State of Guanajuato provided close to 50,000 psychological and psychiatric services in different modalities: face-to-face, via telephone and chat.
A total of 49,826 consultations were provided, of which 47% were for anxiety, 17% for depression, 15% for other reasons, 11% for violence, 5% for suicidal risks, and the remaining 5% for addictions.
In addition, the website http://www.dinamicamente.mx/was set up to provide information and preventive care for emotional crises through personalized attention by telephone (800 290 00 24) or chat 24 hours a day.
In October 2020, the National Health Council recognized the work carried out by the Guanajuato Ministry of Health (SSG) in the management of the health contingency. State Health Secretary Daniel Diaz Martinez explained: "Today we realize how important it is to have provided close to 100,000 mental health care services, following the increase in services, including with the support of telemedicine".
Additionally, the SSG's State Telemedicine Coordination reported 733,080 remote medical consultations and 38,190 remote inter-consultations between hospitals and/or medical centers.
On the other hand, the National Center of Technological Excellence in Health (CENETEC), in its report on health actions 2020 (January-November), ranked Guanajuato as the state with the highest number of telehealth services provided at the national level with 39.3%.
In terms of tele-education, health personnel were continuously trained through the ECHO Guanajuato project platform (http://educads.salud.gob.mx/sitio/vRes/pag_0.php?x=36) by means of seminars and web conferences
The state government also developed web platforms and applications (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.guanajuato.coronavirus&hl=es_MX&gl=US) for consulting information on COVID-19.
