COVID-19 Disruption To Routine Health Care Services: How 8 Latin American And Caribbean Countries Responded

• Published in: Health affairs (Millwood, Va.) Vol. 42; no. 12; p. 1667
• Main Authors: Herrera, Cristian A, Juárez-Ramírez, Clara, Reyes-Morales, Hortensia, Bedregal, Paula, Reartes-Peñafiel, Diana L, Díaz-Portillo, Sandra P, Klazinga, Niek, Kringos, Dionne S, Veillard, Jeremy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.12.2023
• Subjects: Caribbean Region - epidemiology; COVID-19; Delivery of Health Care; Health Services; Humans; Latin America - epidemiology; Pandemics - prevention & control; SARS-CoV-2; Caribbean Region; Latin America
• ISSN: 2694-233X
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00694

Latin America and the Caribbean was one of the regions hardest hit globally by SARS-CoV-2. This qualitative exploratory study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the delivery of routine health services from the perspective of health care system decision makers and managers. Between May and December 2022, we conducted forty-two semistructured interviews with decision makers from ministries of health and health care managers with responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic in eight countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. On the basis of these interviews, we identified themes in three domains: impacts on the provision of routine health services, including postponed and forgone primary care and hospital services; barriers to maintaining routine health services due to preexisting structural health care system weaknesses and difficulties attributed to the pandemic; and innovative strategies to sustain and recover services such as public-private financing and coordination, telemedicine, and new roles for primary care. In the short term, policy efforts should focus on recovering postponed services, including those for noncommunicable diseases. Medium- and long-term health care system reforms should strengthen primary care and address structural issues, such as fragmentation, to promote more resilient health care systems.