Handling sudden increases in demand and further integrating telehealth will be major challenges for Latin American hospitals in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to IDB experts.
Meanwhile, private investment is called upon to play a complementary role in infrastructure development.
“It is advisable to advance in public-private complementarity so that [las inversiones privadas] it can serve as a support or endorsement to resolve the demand of the population. However, for private investment to be viable, it must have sustainable financing,” said Ignacio Astorga, lead healthcare specialist at IDB, during a Web seminar in response to a question from BNamericas.
Astorga added that each country will need to consider private investment depending on its budgets and institutional frameworks.
The webinar was to present a report from the development bank on the responses of the region’s health systems to the pandemic.
According to the bank, the health crisis has disproportionately affected Latin America and the Caribbean, as the region accounts for 1.7 million of the 6.3 million deaths recorded worldwide.
One response to the pandemic has involved converting entire hospitals into wards to deal with COVID-19, but this has had a negative effect by shutting down other emergency services, according to the IDB.
In turn, this has led to a boom in telehealth, which requires further regulation, as only half of the bank’s 26 member countries have laws in place.
“Lack of integration to traditional face-to-face service delivery can play to the detriment of good practice. Naturally, it is important to have regulatory and ethical frameworks that accompany the points related to confidentiality, privacy and information security, ”said María Celeste Savignano, digital medicine specialist, during the event, answering a question from BNamericas.
The expert, who contributed to the report, warned of the threat of limiting telehealth too much, noting that in some cases it may be the only way to access certain health services in remote areas.
You can consult the full IDB report here.
