Overcoming disruptions in essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico
Svetlana V. Doubova, Zoé Alejandro Robledo-Aburto, Célida Duque-Molina, Gabriela Borrayo-Sánchez, Margot González-León, Ricardo Avilés-Hernández, Saúl Eduardo Contreras-Sánchez, Hannah H. Leslie, Margaret Kruk, Ricardo Pérez-Cuevas, Catherine Arsenault
Summary
- Significant disruptions in health services during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) to implement the National Strategy for Health Services Recovery (NHSR strategy) to ensure resumption of essential health services provided to almost 68 million IMSS affiliates.
- Starting in April 2021, the NHSR strategy included six major components: (1) reconversion of repurposed COVID-19 hospitals; (2) strengthening COVID-19 preventive measures; (3) adjusting governance to prioritise essential health services and enhance service delivery, including optimisation of family medicine clinics and hospital working shifts and nationwide weekend services delivery and monothematic (focused on one service or disease) healthcare days; (4) implementation of telemedicine services; (5) reinforcement of preventive services and health promotion activities and (6) regular monitoring of essential health services.
- Lessons learnt could be used as an opportunity to strengthen and modernise IMSS healthcare and enable the institution to satisfy the demand and health needs of the population.
- Future research should assess whether the NHSR strategy was successful in bringing service levels back to prepandemic trends and overcoming the backlogs in care to inform continued health service improvements.
