With the aim of strengthening the coordination and articulation of the network in the context of the increase in respiratory diseases, the Valparaíso-San Antonio Health Service (SSVSA) has convened a team of professionals who make up the Winter Committee. This team is headed by nurse Jelitsa Rojas Jacob, coordinator of the Emergency network and technical reference for the SSVSA Winter 2024 Campaign.
Red he pointed out: “This year the Directorate called me to be the technical reference for the SSVSA, and the objective is to achieve an articulation of the network, coordination not only with the establishments and emergency units, but also with Primary Health Care. There is a lot of work to do, because our population, during the past year, had an increase in respiratory diseases. Not only at the regional level, but at the country level, during approximately week 22, the peak of respiratory diseases occurs, where the respiratory syncytial virus was the main actor.”
The Winter Committee, made up of various units and areas of the service, such as the Training unit, the subdirectorate of Care Management, the unit of Groups Related to Diagnosis, Public Management and User Satisfaction, Clinical Processes, SAMU, APS, referents of Each primary care system, Epidemiology, Statistics, Patient Quality, Audit and Mental Health, is focused on the planning, coordination, monitoring and execution of strategies to face this challenge, as well as their subsequent evaluation.
Transfer Strategies
In relation to transfer strategies, SAMU has developed a secondary transfer protocol, called “critical transfer”, whose objective is to unify the criteria for those patients who need to be transferred. This will be articulated by SAMU Litoral, which regulates patients and, through these protocols, establishes the criteria for transferring patients where the most urgent needs exist.
Call for Self-Care and Vaccination
For its part, Jelitsa Rojas Jacob emphasized the importance of self-care during this time: “The main call is for self-care, to be able to recognize in the population of newborns, infants and children under 6 years of age, what their symptoms and signs are. Let’s not wait for these little ones to become decompensated or exhausted to care for them. That is why immunization is very important. It must be considered that the entire vaccination system is aimed at our at-risk population. In this case, we are concerned about increasing the number of vaccinated minor infants and in the case of school patients who are being immunized in their educational establishments. The only contraindication for not immunizing a school child is the presence of fever. “We must always consider that, once the vaccine is given, the boy or girl has his or her immune load in the body,” pointed out the professional.
Call for Influenza Vaccination
The Director of the Valparaíso-San Antonio Health Service, Cristian Gálvez Lópezcalled on the community to get vaccinated against influenza: “It is essential that we all become aware of the importance of influenza vaccination, especially at this time of year. The vaccine is a crucial tool to prevent serious illness and respiratory complications. I invite all inhabitants of the region, especially risk groups such as children, older adults and people with chronic diseases, to go to health centers and receive their vaccine. “Together we can face this winter season more safely and protect the health of our community.”
