It is almost 3 years since COVID-19 began to spread, causing one of the most massive global disruptions of modern times. But it also spurred changes that hold the key to better health and better healthcare services in the future.
Every aspect of the healthcare system, from basic research to vaccine distribution, from community outreach to intensive care units, responded to the demands of the pandemic at unprecedented rates of innovation. By harnessing this shift, Latin America and the Caribbean can avoid returning to the mostly inequitable and poor-quality healthcare services of the past. Instead – as argued by the IDB’s new Health Flagship publication: “Going Beyond Normal: COVID-19 and Healthcare in Latin America and the Caribbean” – countries can make faster progress toward Universal Health Coverage.
“Going Beyond Normal” summarizes the region’s healthcare challenges prior to the pandemic and presents new data on the stresses caused by the rapid spread of COVID-19. It cites studies on the inefficiency of the region’s health systems and long-standing problems with poor quality provision and inequitable financing such as high out-of-pocket expenditures.
As for the pandemic itself, “Going Beyond Normal” presents new data from an IDB study showing, for example, that most countries were able to maintain maternal care and professional birth attendance, but were unable to maintain services for people with chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. Avoidable deaths unrelated to COVID-19 rose in almost all countries, suggesting that healthcare systems were unable to keep up with competing pressures for supplies, staffing, and infrastructure.
Innovation shows the path forward
Nevertheless, an astonishing array of innovations demonstrated that change is possible when politicians, providers, and the public are sufficiently motivated. Governments passed new legislation in record time to deal with supply problems, permit new uses of technology, and assure financial support to providers and families. Staff were quickly retrained and reassigned to new tasks, contrasting sharply with the difficulties of adjusting the deployment of staff prior to the pandemic. Information about new forms of treatment or the application of digital technologies spread quickly, creating more effective and more equitable treatment for people throughout the region.
Despite a slow start, the region was able to vaccinate over half its population in 2021 – a task which is enormously more difficult than rolling out vaccines for less numerous groups such as children.
All of this shows that the region does not have to settle for the “old normal” when it comes to healthcare services. By increasing investments in public health, embracing digital technologies, sharing information, and managing services more flexibly and responsively, countries can improve the effectiveness, quality, and efficiency of the healthcare system. This is, in short, a new path that COVID-19 has opened up to fulfill the region’s aspirations for universalizing health coverage.
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