The Minister of Health, social affairs and employment Rosa Ferrer submitted the program defining the main activities in health sector at a meeting of Healthcare Committee and environment of Parliament of Andorra. The program is formed till 2020. The main objective of the document – is to increase quality of services and to prevent growth of their cost. It is planned to reconsider policy of insurance payments. Today the process of compensation of insurance premiums in the principality is based on the tariffs of social insurance of Andorra (CASS). And as it’s said in the document, they not always coincide with real tariffs for medical services.
Besides, it is planned to seize such directions as prevention of diseases. Obesity, addictive behavior, infectious diseases, food poisonings, and also diseases of cardiovascular and respiratory systems, in particular, concern to them. The special attention in the program will be paid to a question of protection of personal information of patients. It is noted also that in Andorra it is necessary to develop such direction of medicine as oncology. As expected, work on the program will be complete in the fall of 2015.
By official statistics, last year about 110 thousand people addressed to medical institutions of Andorra, from them about 100 thousand people needed primary medical and sanitary help (prevention, diagnostics, treatment of diseases, medical rehabilitation), about 10 thousand people used service of a call for a doctor. About 37 thousand people asked for emergency aid in 2015 (this indicator remains rather stable over the past few years).
According to the head of department of service of patients of the Health service of Andorra (Servei Andorrà d’Atenció Sanitària, SAAS) Josep M. Casanellas, health system of Andorra is substantially focused on traumatology – both adult and for children, and the nursery. So, last year about 7,5 thousand visits to experts in traumatology and orthopedic surgery were recorded. From them 786 patients suffered serious injuries as a result of skiing. About 4,5 thousand people called for otolaryngologists, about 2,5 thousand patients called for psychologists, 1,6 thousand people used services of children’s psychologists. Last year a little more than 3 thousand surgical interventions were carried out. Accidents for the first part of last year were recorded concerning 786 people, from them 140 people were hospitalized. More than 2 thousand children passed medical examination.
Meanwhile, the regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO) of Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab visited Andorra. She thanked the government of Andorra for the organization of the second meeting of the small states of top-level Europe which took place on July 1-2, 2015 in one of the cities of Andorra – Soldeu. She urged Andorra to continue reform of health system, having emphasized need of strengthening of prevention of diseases to have opportunity to solve problems as soon as possible and with the smallest expenses.
