Discusiones Técnicas : Planificación cooordinada de los servicios de salud

Abstract

The author sets forth a series of basic criteria which, if accepted by all the interested parties, might form the basis for a functional correlation of the health programs of the ministries of health and the social security agencies of Latin American countries. These criteria are as follows: 1) the right to health which belongs to every individual in a democratic community; 2) the need to use available resources in a rational manner; 3) the relationship of health programs to the increase in the gross national product as a fundamental indicator of development; 4) the interrelation between the improvement of individual and of community health; 5) the existence of two levels of implementation of health services, through the ministries of health and through the social security agencies; 6) the need to establish a reasonably low-cost method as a central part of the process of coordination; 7) advisability of starting from the formulation of national health plans and going on to the coordinated implementation of all the activities covered by them. The author then goes on to examine briefly the present situation in the health field in Latin American countries, and points out in particular that the demand for services in health programs comes primarily from persons that have not possibility of access to private services and consequently, have recourse to public services out of sheer necessity. That