2023-09-22 12:13:35
The Spanish Society of Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Health Management (SESPMPyGS) celebrates its XXII National Congress which concludes on Friday, September 22. There are many and varied topics that are debated in a recent and different health context. Once the health and social alarm has been overcome due to having the COVID19 pandemic under control, we must not let our guard down. Therefore, the role of preventive medicine specialists and the different specialists who work in the public health field and the management is increasingly relevant.
State Public Health Agency
Last February, the Ministry of Health already communicated the “urgency and need” from the State Public Health Agency. In the words of the then minister, Carolina Darias It was “essential to be able to plan and anticipate the future.” The roadmap, as reported by the minister, included: The National Recovery Plan, the Public Health Strategy in July 2022, the public health surveillance network and finally arriving at the State Public Health Agency. The agency has not arrived, despite the urgency and priority announced. However, the Congressional reconstruction commission had already agreed (with 256 votes in favor) that the Agency was a priority in July 2020.
But it is necessary that the agency be already a reality, and contemplate a professional structure, independentequipped with resources, and retain talent. An Agency that must be a international referent as is Spain with the Aemps or the ONT. In order to achieve the necessary scientific rigor, it must depoliticize and must have the capacity to carry out independent reports, including the evaluation of healthcare quality.
“Now we no longer talk regarding the Agency. Do we run the risk of forgetting their need?”
Preliminary draft
A draft law for the creation of the aforementioned Agency was published a year ago, and doubts were raised from different sectors. Now we no longer talk regarding the Agency. Do we run the risk of forgetting its need? Well, we run the risk of forgetting regarding agency as much as forgetting that COVID-19 put society in check, and the threat of future crisis It is a certainty that time will reveal.
It will be interesting to see the proposals that the parliamentary groups have to reach sums that allow progress with the appropriate legislative projects. This is what was done with the pandemic among the majority parties. And it would be necessary for the future Agency, if it does not fall into political oblivion, to also address the determinants of health and inequality, which is why the Autonomous Communities must participate in its autonomous structure.
Other legislative emergencies
Among the legislative projects to be undertaken is the General Health Law 14/1986, a Law from a time when the health system was facing other challenges. The role of prevention in the 80s of the promulgation of the aforementioned Law is not the same as now.
The prevention and public health They now permeate health strategies in the main diseases, whether cardiovascular diseases, cancer or communicable and preventable infections. But moving forward with a General Health Law requires a broad political commitment and that attention be focused on society. Are we in this moment?
It is necessary to force, through reasoning and insistence, the political leaders to do what is expected and necessary. On the part of the health authorities there must be listening, dialogue and internal debate among expert groups and specialists. A witness that must be collected by political representatives from the autonomies, the governments and the different oppositions. Because we run the risk of forgetting what is relevant.
Priorities in Palma de Mallorca
That is why the debate between the political forces that has taken place within the Palma Congress of the SESPMPyGA It can indicate the tendency of the main political parties, the Popular Party and the Socialist Party that attended the call.
Some of the urgent health issues that include prevention They are addressed by defining pediatric vaccination strategies and, especially, the more complex one for adults. Covid-19, flu, RSV, Pneumonia due to pneumococcus or Herpes Zoster They require effective plans.
Las bacterial resistance They are a priority for the EU, and 90 people die every day in Spain alone because of this problem. Focus One Health It is a relevant step to address this problem, together with the stimulation of R&D with new antibiotics. The current attendance of the specialty of infectious diseases It is one of the most resounding political failures in recent years. Ministers appear incapable of doing what is necessary to ensure the training, competence and the necessary places for the fight once morest infections.
Preventivistas
There is also a lack of specialists in preventive medicinethere is a need to provide better Hospital services and regulate their hiring as statutory officers. And, of course, that the preventive medicine and public health. In healthcare management, integration optimizes resources and information. A redesign of these areas and more resources is needed; identify hospitals that act as references and work with other hospitals.
Palma de Mallorca has pointed out reflections on many issues that must be taken into account without delay, without excuses, by health administrations and politicians who have the duty to protect the health of society.
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