11/19/2018
Press Bulletin No. 181, 2018
- Juan Pablo Uribe indicated that surveillance and control measures are being strengthened to benefit system users
Bogotá, DC, November 19, 2018. During the opening of the Quality of Health Care forum held in the business center of the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Juan Pablo Uribe, said that despite different contexts, the sector must never leave quality care aside.
Minister Uribe indicated that "in spite of the political, economic, social and financial contexts, we must keep the quality of care in our sector's agenda every day. We cannot suspend speaking about quality, despite the vicissitudes, to achieve better clinical results for our patients," he said.
He also reported that to keep the health sector pointing north in Colombia, it is necessary "to focus on achieving better health outcomes for the population and better clinical outcomes while respecting the expectations of the population, patients and their families. The issue of quality is central and we have to provide better service every day," he insisted before an audience of 700 people.
Minister Uribe referred to the current situation of the roadmap for efforts with EPSs and IPSs and society, in the short and medium term, to have a better health system. "We have to face fractures and imbalances in the financial area, in the migration phenomenon and in the relations among EPSs and IPSs," he said.
Later, he stated that the effort is aimed at providing greater liquidity to the health sector within the framework of a political situation of the Financing Law. "We must recall that for the 2019 budget we were able to include 3.2 trillion pesos more. Our sector requires liquidity and we need to ensure that the 2019 budget is financed," he said.
He then pointed out that policies such as drug pricing control will continue "while looking more deeply into methodologies that have to do with greater therapeutic value for patients."
In relation to the end-point agreement, he said "we are structuring this agreement with the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and the Office of the Deputy Minister of Social Protection to reach an understanding and thus build mechanisms that give liquidity to the system and reach the value chain of health services," he said.
Similarly, the Minister revealed that "this is not the time to reform the insurance model that we have been building for 25 years, but we must change the flow of financial resources."
He added that these reforms will strengthen the freedom of choice of all citizens, allow competition and eliminate the abuse of a dominant position. He noted that the bill filed in Congress for the strengthening of the National Health Superintendence will help the impact of its sanctions to be much greater than the damages that may occur in the sector.
"Additionally, there will be full alignment with the Superintendencies of Industry and Commerce, and of Companies to find abuses of dominant position, intervene when they are found, and there are always societal responsibilities," he emphasized.
Finally, Ministry Uribe revealed that soon the discussion of the National Development Plan 2018-2022 will start, for those interventions that allow improving the performance of the health system in Colombia.
