COVID has demonstrated the urgent need to invest in Los Angeles’ health systems

The World Bank stated that more investment is needed to address the pressures on the health care system, which have been exacerbated by the Corona virus, including mental health services, and to lay the foundations for improving outcomes in terms of human development and economic growth.

“The pandemic has shown that health systems must be adequately funded and able to deal with shocks and overloads,” said Juan Pablo Uribe, global director of health, nutrition and population practice at the international organization.

According to the document Building Resilient Health Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemicpublished by the World Bank, many countries in the region have implemented telehealth and telemedicine services, which can be used and used to promote a series of reforms that bring greater resilience to the health sector.

Despite improvements in health care over the past 30 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has found itself in a region facing many systemic challenges. Most health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean perform below average for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The organization explained that health care fragmentation is one of the main causes of waste in the region, leading to duplication of tasks, significantly reducing system efficiency and exacerbating inequality.

On average, spending on health, although it has grown in recent years, barely amounts to 25% of per capita spending in OECD countries, adjusted for purchasing power.

The World Bank confirmed that the low capacity of health systems also affected the response of different countries to face shocks and spikes in demand, while the insufficient investment in public health recorded before the pandemic left health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean with a low level of preparation.

The region has had one of the highest rates of death and excess mortality from COVID-19 in the world, while the pandemic has led to a significant increase in mental illness.