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Date Published: 09/05/2022

ARCHIVED - Spain plans to overhaul outdated public health surveillance system

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

The Ministry of Health in Spain will create a new structure to avoid the failures highlighted during the pandemic

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Spain plans to overhaul outdated public health surveillance system

The shortcomings of the public health surveillance system in Spain have become glaringly apparent through the course of the pandemic, failing to effectively detect threats in advance and being generally insufficient in coordinating between different autonomous communities to react quickly to any sort of crisis.

According to those reviewing the system, most of the regions in Spain are operating with equipment that is more than 20 years old and the number of professionals dedicated to studying public health risks amounts to just 1.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, far short of the 250 recommended as optimal by the American Association of Schools and Public Health Programs.

The current model also fails to take advantage of the reliable sources of information that have proved vital during the health crisis, such as social networks and artificial intelligence.

With the newly proposed track and trace system, the State Public Health Surveillance Network should be capable of collecting, analysing, interpreting and disseminating information in a timely manner, ultimately improving the health and well-being of the population as a whole and allowing the authorities to respond quickly in times of need.

The government is also keen to promote decision-making linked directly to the public health surveillance in order to prevent criticism that choices are made based on political agenda rather than technical criteria, something the current administration repeatedly came under fire for during the pandemic.

To get the new system up and running, the Ministry of Health has admitted that “sufficient resources” will be required, without specifying how much it all will cost. A deadline of one year has been set for the first phase, and a method of evaluating the system will have to be completed within two.

To "facilitate the results of surveillance to be communicated effectively and reach the target audience, which should include notifiers, professionals, policy makers, entities of organised civil society and citizens", a period of between two and five years has been set.

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