They consider it a priority to build a "sustainable and resilient" health system, capable of facing unforeseen risks.
SANTO DOMINGO- The Fullness Foundation, with the support of "Exemplars in Global Health", There Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), presented the seminar "Resilience of the health system in the face of future health emergencies”, in which public health experts exposed the challenges and practices to guarantee a resilient system in the face of future pandemics, similar to those of COVID-19.
Magdalena Rathe, economist and president of the Plenitud Foundation, cited among the challenges to build resilience in the health system the need to address the existing weaknesses of the health system, particularly those of the first level of care, preparation for future pandemics and events extremes resulting from climate change. In this sense, she proposed a national agreement "to enable the first level of care with resolution capacity, which functions as a gateway to the health system."
When presenting the results of an investigation on the response to the pandemic, Rathe indicated the importance of retaking the vision of intersectorality, of the determinants of health, community health, the links and alliances between different spheres of society, aspects that they became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, which he considered could guarantee greater efficiency in future emergency scenarios.
As good practices on the management of the pandemic in the country, Rathe listed the use of effective communication strategies to instill trust and respect towards social and public health measures; use of strategies to launch an effective mass vaccination campaign, and public-private partnerships, along with the maintenance of key health services.
During the activity, Roger Motes, National Advisor for Systems and Services, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), advocated for greater investment in Essential Public Health Functions (FESP). “They are a tool to evaluate and strengthen the new capacities of the health authorities, essential to ensure universal and equitable access to interventions to improve the health of the population,” Motes declared.
The program of the event included a panel of experts, in which Miguel Rodríguez Viñas, Deputy Minister of Planning of the MSP, Cecilia Buchananm, adviser to the Health office, and Arismendi Díaz Santana, president of the Social Security for All Foundation, highlighted the need to strengthen the first level of primary health care to increase the resilience of the local health system.
When exposing during the event, which was held in the INTEC Social Security auditorium, the senior researcher of the Central American Institute of Business Administration (INCAE), Andy Pearson, presented the experiences and lessons learned after the COVID-19 pandemic in Costa Rica. While Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Brown University Pandemic Center, within the "Exemplars in Global Health" initiative, presented the comparative analysis of six countries from different regions of the world that showed good results at the beginning of the pandemic.
The activity was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Public Health, the National Health Service, the Single System of Beneficiaries, the National Council of Social Security, the Superintendence of Health and Occupational Hazards, among other public and private institutions.
The opening remarks were offered by Eugenio Gómez, coordinator of the Master's in Public Health and Epidemiology, who appreciated that the activity will allow building a more complete and enriching vision of the resilience of the Dominican health system and how to improve practices and policies in this ambit.