Publication: Oncopediatric Health Service’s Network in Argentina: Background, Capabilities, and Challenges
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2023-12-09
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2023-12-09
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The development of integrated health service networks is one of the main priorities set by the National Health Ministry of the Argentine Republic (Ministerio de Salud, MINSAL), considering that these networks are an effective strategy to overcome the inefficiencies and inequities that affect the health system. As a result, MINSAL requested the World Bank’s financial support to design and implement a National Fund for High Complexity Diseases (NFHCD) by means of a new loan provided under a Program for Results scheme (PforR). As a first step toward the design of a National Fund for High Complexity Diseases, this paper, based on the study of childhood cancer in Argentina, seeks to investigate the key aspects that should be considered when planning an effective service network for such diseases. The selection of case studies was based on the characteristics of a high-complexity and low-incidence specialty, with a marked specificity in approach strategies. In addition, it is a high-cost network, taking into account the price of treatments, which may involve days, months, or years of hospitalization—and the cost of the drugs required to treat such cases. The evidence collected has allowed us to shed light on the critical pathways patients navigate in the current oncopediatric care structure. First, the family is the one that identifies the child's first symptoms and therefore approaches the health care system. Second, there is a poor understanding that both health care service providers and users have the health network organized by levels of resolution. Another structural challenge is the fragmentation between subsystems, public, social security, and private health insurance companies—resulting in different approaches and qualities of care beyond the health need identified. A strong interplay between national public referral hospitals with patients with different health care coverage schemes could contribute to reducing access gaps.
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“Maceira, Daniel; Suárez, Patricia; Díaz, María Laura. 2023. Oncopediatric Health Service’s Network in Argentina: Background, Capabilities, and Challenges. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42510 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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