A national team to work on improving the health system in the short term was formed this week at a meeting between President Santiago Peña and several Cabinet ministers. It has subsequently been announced that within 60 days, they will work to strengthen and put into operation all intensive care units in the country.
“A Cabinet meeting with the President of the Republic has just concluded, where the President asked us and told us that health is a problem for the Government of Paraguay and that as a team we have to work to move forward and improve the health system,” said the Minister of Health, Maria Teresa Barán, at a press conference.
“The president asked us to work permanently, in a coordinated and team-based manner with the different ministries so that we can provide structural solutions as soon as possible for the Paraguayan population,” said the minister.
In this regard, she announced that the team will work over the next 60 days to strengthen the country’s intensive care units, both neonatal, pediatric and adult, taking into account that 40% of them are not operational.
“We are going to work on setting up these intensive therapies so that the population can access this highly complex and costly service for Paraguayan families,” she said.
She said that they will not only focus on this priority work but will also seek solutions at all levels of the health system, from the primary care level through Family Health Units, regional hospitals and specialised hospitals.
“We want Paraguay’s health system to be better than the private health system, and we know that this is what the Paraguayan population is looking for,” said the minister.
The national team working on improving the health system
The national team is comprised of representatives from the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, and the National Directorate of Public Procurement.
“This team will be working permanently with weekly reviews,” announced the Minister of Information and Communication Technologies, Gustavo Villate.
Villate also mentioned the immediate intention to expand and strengthen the work of the HIS health information system, which currently has 80% coverage. “Not only to stay in consultation, scheduling, hospitalisation, but to have what is pharmacy, logistics,” he said.
The goal is to make access to and use of data more efficient and to make decisions based on that data, he said.
The health system is an “absolute priority” in the budget
For his part, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Carlos Fernández Valdovinos, said that within the budget, the health area will have an “absolute priority” so that it has the necessary resources.
“They (Health) have a budget of more than 325 million US dollars for this year, if they need more, we will modify, within the powers that the Executive has, the national budget in such a way as to give it more resources if that were necessary,” he added.
