Two months have passed since the director of the O’Higgins Health Service (SSO), Jaime Gutiérrez, announced measures to address the various problems faced by the Regional Hospital in early February. Amid the shortage of specialists due to lack of stimuli and supplies, he committed to implementing short- and medium-term solutions, including the incorporation of fellowship-trained doctors and the adoption of telemedicine starting March 1.
In addition, he mentioned the evaluation of solutions for the lack of specialists in areas such as Otorhinolaryngology and Anesthesiology. In this context, the exploration of initiatives to reduce waiting lists was carried out.
When consulting the director of the SSO about the fulfillment of these commitments, he highlighted that progress has been made. Working groups were coordinated with the Medical College to reach agreements, with whom a monthly meeting was scheduled.
In relation to allocations, he reported that they have increased in various specialties, such as dermatology, otorhinolaryngology, health, oncology and internal medicine. This is how Gutiérrez explained it: “an analysis was carried out regarding the specialty assignments, those that were missing, were low, as of April 1 they will be corrected, they will be put on the market, we did an analysis regarding what Maule has , which has other services also about the same size as ours, such as Coquimbo, Concepción, Metropolitano Sur, that went up,” he said.
To address the lack of dermatology specialists, the arrival of third-year USACH fellows to the Regional Hospital was promised starting March 1, which has been fulfilled with the incorporation of two fellows who provide around 600 monthly medical services. dermatology, detailed the director of the SSO.
“The dermatology thing started the first week of March. There are two scholarship recipients who are permanently providing dermatology specialty care. These students will be coordinated with professors who teach the specialty at the university and will accompany them in this process. With that we are attending to around 600 dermatology services, that is the projection of services that we could attend during the month. It is already scheduled until December and we hope to continue next year.”
Gutiérrez added “we are also making attempts with specialty return professionals who should also be incorporated. “That should be in the second semester.”
Meanwhile, with the ENT specialty, the health authority said “we have a PAO (Compulsory Care Period) doctor who is from another region that we are also in talks to have him come, but we want to do the same strategy of contacting him again. University. So, the allocations were raised, which was what the Medical College requested, that we be on par with other services, that was done; and we continue trying to get another specialist.”
WORKING ON WAITING LIST REDUCTION
Regarding the reduction of waiting lists, Gutiérrez indicated that a strategy called the Regional Resolution Center (CRR) was implemented at the Regional Hospital, allocating a pavilion to increase the number of surgeries performed.
“On March 18, the strategy began at the CRR Regional Hospital, where a pavilion is used to perform a greater amount of surgery, a different management of supplies, professionals, medical equipment, and patients is carried out. We have good results. In one day, 8 patients were treated, so the number of patients has been increasing and that allows us to make progress in resolving the waiting list.”
The director added, “We want to start with one ward at the Regional Hospital and then advance to three wards, but first we have to see what the weaknesses are, how to implement one well and once we are clear what the model is and how it is implemented, We are going to advance in the other pavilions. “We are doubling the resolution capacity of that pavilion and we want to increase that strategy.”
Regarding oncology, he indicated that projects have been presented to the Regional Government, and resources were received for the renewal of oncological equipment for more than 500 million pesos.
“We met with the Governor, we presented the project ideas we have, he was well received, now we are doing the formal delivery part of the project. At the same time, we received resources of more than 500 million from the Ministry to renew oncological equipment. There is also the oncology issue of medical assignments, which was also raised before to have a perhaps more motivated team, a team of oncology doctors from the Regional Hospital,” said Gutiérrez.
On this topic, he explained that there was an agreement signed with the Chile Sin Cancer Foundation to improve the infrastructure in oncology, “they are going to help us improve the physical oncology space at the Regional Hospital to expand the capacity to improve conditions. We have equipment with ministerial funds of more than 580 million pesos, equipment renewal, waiting list with the Regional Government, Chile Sin Cancer Foundation to improve infrastructure as a first stage.”
Despite the progress, surgical and non-surgical waiting lists continue to be a challenge, with more than 120 thousand people affected, including 25 thousand only in traumatology, where it is planned to increase the resolution capacity.
“Let’s see, waiting lists, we have made progress. If this ward manages to get more patients, that will free up other spaces to be able to do more surgery. The trauma waiting list is a relevant list. We want to have the option of being able to make a DFL of 36, which allows us to allocate resources to carry out a tender, which is in talks with the Ministry, I still do not have the green light with that.”
Along these lines, Gutiérrez assured that “The knee teams at the Regional Hospital are already doing more surgery, they are doing outpatient knee surgery, which also allows us to reduce the length of stay of patients who are hospitalized and do more surgery, we are moving forward,” said director Jaime Gutiérrez.
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