Summary.
The bill creates the National Health Prevention and Primary Care Program and sets the conditions for implementing it in each corregimiento of Panama. It prioritizes rural, Indigenous comarca and hard-to-reach areas with more than 4,000 inhabitants. The program covers health promotion, disease prevention, restoration of health, patients’ social rehabilitation and social assistance through comprehensive care. It would be overseen by the General Directorate of Public Health (Dirección General de Salud Pública) of the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud) and implemented in coordination with the Social Security Fund (Caja de Seguro Social).
As part of the program, the Ministry of Health would equip existing health centers to meet the requirements for providing comprehensive primary care to the population. An Annual Preventive Medicine Plan would be established at every Ministry of Health health center, Social Security Fund polyclinic and public facility providing health services. Every patient at these facilities would have access to the plan through a primary care physician. The bill provides that the State promote and guarantee the availability of and access to the program and its preventive health services throughout the country.
Patients enrolled in the Annual Preventive Medicine Plan could receive medical advice, preventive health training, assistance in obtaining services and nutritional plans. The plan also provides for timely identification of health conditions that could endanger their lives and for disease management. For a comprehensive preventive approach, the program takes biological, psychological and social factors into account.
In corregimientos with no more than 4,000 inhabitants, the program would operate through an itinerant physician accompanied by qualified health personnel, who would provide services twice a week. The bill also establishes monthly outreach visits to corregimientos with fewer than 4,000 inhabitants, including vaccination, nutrition, and detection and management of degenerative diseases. To carry out these measures, it provides for the Ministry of Health to receive the budgetary resources needed for infrastructure, personnel and supplies for those corregimientos, neighboring corregimientos with smaller populations and hard-to-reach areas.
The Ministry of Health would issue regulations for the proposed law within 90 days of its promulgation. The proposed law would take effect the day after promulgation. Its provisions concern the General Directorate of Public Health, the Ministry of Health and the Social Security Fund; they could be of interest to or affect public health facilities, health personnel, patients and rural, Indigenous comarca and hard-to-reach communities.
What it proposes.
- Creation and implementation of a national health prevention and primary care program.
- Annual preventive medicine plans in public health facilities.
- Itinerant care and health outreach visits in less populous corregimientos.
- Regulations and resources for implementing the program.
Who it would affect.
- Patients of public facilities providing health services.
- Health centers of the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud) and polyclinics of the Social Security Fund (Caja de Seguro Social).
- Residents of rural, Indigenous comarca and hard-to-reach corregimientos.
- Itinerant physicians and qualified health personnel.
Key points.
- Creates the program for every corregimiento in Panama and prioritizes rural, Indigenous comarca and hard-to-reach areas with more than 4,000 inhabitants.Art. 1
- Places the program under the General Directorate of Public Health (Dirección General de Salud Pública) of the Ministry of Health, in coordination with the Social Security Fund.Art. 1
- Requires existing health centers to be equipped to provide comprehensive primary care.Art. 2
- Establishes an Annual Preventive Medicine Plan in public health facilities, accessible to their patients through a primary care physician.Art. 3
- Provides medical advice, preventive health training, assistance in obtaining services and nutritional plans for patients enrolled in the plan.Art. 3
- Provides for an itinerant physician and qualified health personnel to serve corregimientos with no more than 4,000 inhabitants twice a week.Art. 4
- Establishes monthly outreach visits and budgetary resources for infrastructure, personnel and supplies.Art. 5
- Assigns the Ministry of Health responsibility for issuing regulations within 90 days of promulgation and sets the effective date as the following day.Arts. 6-7