The Department of Health of the Government of Navarra will extend to all health centers in the regional community starting next October 10 the smart switchboard that improves telephone care for patients. The tool, which already works in most Primary Care centers in Navarra, allows patients to request, if the line is busy, by dialing the number 8, that the health center staff call them back. automatically without having to call more than once.
The measure has been announced by the Minister of Health, Fernando Domínguez, in a parliamentary commission. As indicated, Viana, Villatuerta and Allo, on October 8, and Ancín and Los Arcos, on October 10, will be the last five centers in the network of health centers to incorporate this smart switchboard system into their phones. .
The tool, which has been gradually implemented since June in centers in the health area of Pamplona, Tudela and Estella-Lizarra, is one of the measures announced by the Navarrese Health Service-Osasunbidea in spring to improve telephone accessibility to patients. health centers. The counselor explained that “the reality is that it has been a measure that is giving great results, it is improving accessibility, the perception of citizens and the work of our administrative staff.”
The operating system is that if a person calls their health center for any procedure and the line is busy, a voice recording will indicate the option to dial number 8 to request automatic redial by the center. This call remains in a waiting queue, in the same position as if the user were still on the phone, and once the line is freed, the health center staff will return the call in order. Three attempts are made every five minutes to contact the patient; If you do not respond to any of the three, the user must call the center again.
Regarding the Chamber of Comptos report on accessibility to Primary Care 2018-2023, the counselor indicated that “all the recommendations have been well received, some are already being worked on, others depend on other organizations and others require an investment that now We cannot do it ourselves or it would mean changing some rule that would also take time to change, but everything that we can cover with the human and economic resources that we have available and the current regulations, we will do.”
However, Fernando Domínguez has specified that the report covers “five years in which we could say that in almost three of them the COVID-19 pandemic occurred” and “in 107 pages the word Covid-19 is mentioned on four occasions.” ”. “We have almost three years of the five analyzed that condition everything that happened afterward and are named four times. Four,” he insisted.
The counselor explained that “the conclusion of the report is that there is a lack of doctors, they carry out less activity and there are more absences, some of them forced and known, such as those derived from the recognition of gray-haired people.” “Without going into evaluating past decisions, I reiterate that in Navarra the ratio of doctors is one of the highest in the State,” he noted.
After this, the counselor pointed out that “we have to carry out a correct redistribution of the human resources available throughout the territory taking into account criteria of population, dispersion, communications, etc., work that we are developing but that takes time, it cannot be to do in months what has not been done for years and we are not going to rush into something so complex.”
In this sense, Domínguez has indicated that “we are working to attract professionals from other Communities, to create contracts almost a la carte according to the personal needs of each one or we work with the MIR during their training in a personalized way to train them and, in quotes “, to ensure that they stay in Navarra.”