Panama Tackles Doctor Shortage with Telemedicine and Foreign Hires

One of the main priorities of this administration has been the implementation of Telemedicine, mainly for areas where specialists are scarce. This situation was pointed out by the institution's general director, Dino Mon, in an interview with Telemetro, where he acknowledges that the issue of medical appointments is the worst problem facing society. Mon also mentioned that another action they are taking is the mutual aid among professionals of various specialties to resolve situations, such as an internist helping patients with proctology, for example. The Minister of Health, Fernando Boyd Galindo, stated that they have been working on this technology because it is not possible to have a specialist in every field. This is not the first time this topic has been discussed as a palliative measure, although on this occasion, there have been no comments from the medical guilds. Mon recalled that there is a law that allows bringing in professionals from abroad under the circumstances outlined in said legislation. It should be remembered that in December, a team of health professionals from the US Southern Command joined the medical teams of San Miguel Arcángel (San Migelito) and Nicolás Solano (La Chorrera) hospitals to strengthen medical services for the coming months. He announced that they have received a response from Ecuador. Precisely, the CSS launched its fifth call this Wednesday to try to reinforce medical care nationwide. After obtaining few results in the last calls, the CSS does not rule out hiring foreign specialists to alleviate this crisis. This medium tried to get the opinion of several medical leaders, but there was no response. However, what is being done to face this reality? The other positions are for Colón (11), Panamá Este (11), and Veraguas (5), for a total of 71 positions. The institution requires the most specialists in anesthesiology (9), followed by cardiology (7), ophthalmology (7), pediatrics (7), gastroenterology (5), and nephrology (5). The Caja de Seguro Social (CSS) has made four calls for specialists and has only managed to hire six doctors. Marcos Young, national executive director of Health Services and Benefits, stated that most of the positions are aimed at the interior of the country, where there is a deficit of specialists. Another factor that he believes influences this is that although they train many specialists, other countries seek them out because they lack them and offer them more attractive financial benefits. In an interview with Ecotv, Boyd Galindo used oncology as an example, a branch in which they have opened positions and they have remained vacant. "It's a chimera," he said. For Bocas del Toro, 14 positions have been opened; for Coclé, 11; for Azuero, 10; and for Chiriquí, 9.