The Minister of Health, Mónica García, does not rule out that masks return to health centers and hospitals if indicators related to flu and Covid-19 are exceeded during the coming fall and winter months.
“The tools and measures we have against respiratory viruses are the vaccination, hygiene, masks and containment measures“There is not much more,” said García when asked at the press conference after the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS) about the possible return of masks in health centers and hospitals.
Thus, the minister has reported that this Friday a document with the autonomous communities that establishes common criteria for action in flu and Covid-19 and that “will take final shape” on October 17 in the Public Health Commission. “It is a technical document that is being worked on in the different commissions and presentations, but we wanted to unify both the technical criteria and the political criteria as many times the counselors themselves have demanded of us,” explained the minister.
In line, he has assured that This text is being worked on with the CCAA to anticipate and prevent these situations and that “it does not have to be the Ministry of Health that tells the communities what they have to do as well.” “It’s not just about measures once we are in the scenario, but measures of how we can anticipate those scenarios at the moment in which we will start to see some indicators that start to rise, because act when the curve is rising exponentially, we have already seen that it brings us complications“he explained.
García hopes that with this document, of which all the details will be known on October 17 after the Public Health Commission, avoid “complications” like those of last year. “You already saw the complications we had last year to make a measure that we considered was basic, which is putting on a mask in healthcare facilitieswhen the curve had shot up. We believe that we can act sooner and that is why we need this document,” he stressed.
Specifically, the person responsible for Health has explained that the text will serve to propose indicators that allow us to characterize the epidemiological situation based on a combination of different epidemiological indicators such as transmission, severity, incidence rate, hospitalization rate, ICU admission or fatality. In addition, different scenarios will be established based on these indicators and recommendations will be considered.
“This It had only been done previously with Covid-19 and that is why it is pioneering that from the Ministry we are promoting that we now also deal with this year’s flu epidemic so that we do not get caught by the bull,” added the minister.
Registration of professionals
During the celebration of the CISNS, the minister welcomed the Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Junta de Andalucía, María del Rocío Hernándezto the Basque Minister of Health, Alberto Martinez, and the Minister of Health of the Generalitat, Olga Panefor his first participation. Precisely with Pané, García has highlighted her attendance at the CISNS after 10 years of absence of representatives from this region, something that the minister considers “a symbol of the new time for dialogue.”
Likewise, during the meeting the situation of the State Registry of Health Professionals (REPS)something that García considers “a basic tool to know where the professionals are, what they are doing and what their specialty is.” “Right now we have the registration of professionals, I think it is 78 percent filled”the minister pointed out, while also indicating that “it is the communities that have to keep feeding this registry so that they know what the number of professionals is.”
Thus, issues related to the preliminary draft of Alcohol Consumption Prevention Law and its effects on minors and the draft Royal Decree that regulates the evaluation of health technologies. In addition, the agreement for the designation, redesignation and revocation of services and reference units (CSUR) of the SNS has been approved.
“There has also been an agreement for the distribution of funds in matters as important as smoking, plasma or the issue of territorial distribution of biomonitoring,” García added.
Specifically, the territorial distribution and distribution criteria of the credits managed by the autonomous communities and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla have been approved for the implementation of measures and plans against smokingfor an amount of 1,500,000 euros.
Thus, the territorial distribution and distribution criteria of the credits managed by the autonomous communities destined for the obtaining human plasmawithin the framework of the national strategy for self-sufficiency in plasma, for an amount of 2,500,000 euros.
In addition, it has been agreed to approve the territorial distribution and distribution criteria of the credits managed by the autonomous communities and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla for the development of biomonitoring systemfor an amount of 1,500,000 euros.