Monday 27 June 2022

#FAP_ICSCC Primary care pharmacists, support for patient-centred care

Josep Vidal-Alaball





For writing this post, Josep Vidal-Alaball has shared authorship with Anna Maria Bonet Esteve and Aïna Fuster Casanovas.

Health systems have always been more disease-oriented than patient-oriented. In a paternalistic way, the patient's medication has been managed, indicating what he or she has to take and how they have to do it. What consequences has this had? Discomfort in those patients for whom the medication does not suit them, with the consequent interruption of the treatment and the frustration of the professionals for not obtaining results, in addition to the high cost associated with the health system. The social profile of the Catalan population is characterized by progressive ageing and, therefore, by an increase in chronic pathology and associated comorbidities. Fragmented health care among multiple health providers in the system can complicate treatments that are already complex per se. In a context of excessive medicalization of daily life due to the use of medication as one of the main therapeutic resources in the provision of health care, there is an acute need to change the paternalistic management model to promote care that takes into account all stakeholders (1)(2).

Monday 20 June 2022

Lack of nurses: a serious social problem

Alba Brugués
 



The nursing shortage is a well-known problem throughout the world and has been exacerbated by the effect of the pandemic. According to a WHO report published in 2020, there are 28 million nurses in the world, constituting 59% of health professionals. Currently, the shortage of nurses is estimated at 5.9 million. The report highlights that if action is not taken, by 2030 there will be a shortage of 10.6 million nurses worldwide. In Spain, it is estimated that there are 120,000 missing and in Catalonia 24,000.

Monday 13 June 2022

Digital transformation as a new determinant of health

Elena Torrente
 



The Spanish Ministry of Health has recently published the Digital Health Strategy of the National Health System. The document, closely aligned with the WHO and European Union strategy on this matter, presents three main lines of action:

  1. Development of digital health services aimed at people, organizations and processes that make up the health protection system, with an equity approach.
  2. Generalization to the maximum of the interoperability of health information.
  3. Promotion of the analysis of data related to health, its determinants and the health system.

Monday 6 June 2022

Universal health coverage in Spain, myth or reality?

José Cerezo






The WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing has promoted the first exhaustive analysis of financial protection in Spain, led by a team of national experts. The report entitled Can people afford to pay for Health Care? New evidence on financial protection in Spain jointly analyzes microdata from the INE Family Budget Surveys between 2006 and 2019 (the latest data available at the time of publication) and data on unmet needs for health services provided by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).