Panama has decided to unite the services of the Social Security (CSS) and the Ministry of Health so that users no longer have to pay the consequences of a duplicate, slow, and wasteful model. For decades, the country maintained two separate networks that worked separately even though they were face to face, indicates a CSS communiqué. In one clinic there was ophthalmology, a laboratory, or specialists, while in the other—across the street—new processes were opened to hire the same thing. This mismatch translated into what the population knows by heart: endless queues, appointments months in advance, duplicated resources, and unused equipment. According to the Social Security Fund, the integration comes to correct that failure that has been affecting the people for years. It's like in any neighborhood: if a classroom already has an art teacher, the solution is not to hire another to repeat the same, but to share what already exists. The process is carried out under Law 462, with clear rules, institutional responsibility, and maintaining that the CSS continues to protect the funds and rights of the insured. The institution summarizes it this way: this is not a whim, it is a step of the State. A move to build a modern, efficient, and truly humane health system, where the patient comes first and where Panama moves towards a model that works, without waste and with a vision for the future.
When facilities share services such as pharmacy, laboratory, imaging, family medicine, or ophthalmology, the country gains something that is truly felt in daily life: more attention in less time, less wasted spending on duplications, equipment and specialists used to the maximum, quality without asking for more budget, more efficient purchases. Services closer to those who need them most. The idea is simple for the Social Security Fund: if a center already has space and specialists, there is no need to build the same thing next door.
