Congress “We Care Society”. Bishop Paglia: Equity in Health and Welfare.

Vatican

The slogans of the health system focusing on the welfare of citizens and patients should be: solidarity, the right balance between health education aimed at prevention, regional medicine and hospital centers, continuity and integration of care.

This was confirmed by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy of Life, in his inaugural address on the second day of the International Conference of “Somos Community Care”, on October 6, in Madrid. Monsignor Paglia knows the truth about Somos Community Care, which he visited in Brooklyn, New York, in March of this year.

Access to health for all

Monsignor Paglia addressed the topic “Equity in Health and Wellness. Treating and Transforming the System to Deliver a Single Level of Care”. Monsignor Paglia explained that the COVID-19 pandemic faced complex problems related to the doctor-patient relationship, equality in access to care, the relationship between costs and benefits, and the allocation of economic resources to health care.

Monsignor Paglia, by enumerating the various tangible elements of seeing on the human scale of medicine and care, noted that “in the context of the physician-patient relationship, the GP will be able to prudently reduce the waste of medicines and services. illness that leads him to assume his responsibilities in taking care of his health and the health of others.”

Balanced use of resources

Regarding the fair and balanced use of resources, “With regard to the cost/benefit logic, a condition must first be made, as explained by Monsignor Paglia. He added that if we put the economic risk on one side of the equilibrium and the life of one person on the other, any economic cost could be justified, It is therefore necessary to be clear about the transcendent value of man even in the economic sphere.

“It is true that the resources of the state are not infinite, but this fact implies that, within the scope of availability, options must be given priority starting with the priority of man, to which economic values ​​must be subject. Before saying that there is no money, it is also necessary to check carefully how it is used” , stressed the bishop of the Vatican

Risks and benefits in medical ethics

Regarding the relationship between risks and benefits in treatment, the President of the Pontifical Academy of Life stated that it is necessary to consider “the criterion of diagnostic, therapeutic and ethical proportionality, which refers rather to the relationship between the characteristics of treatments (including cost, availability, difficulty of application …) and the diagnostic-therapeutic efficacy on health and life, bearing in mind the cost and suffering of the patient’s medical maneuver.”

At the start of the epidemic, Monsignor Paglia noted that “hospital care, however, is a distraction from other care institutions. Nursing homes, for example, have been greatly affected by the epidemic, and PPE and evidence have only been available in sufficient quantities at a late stage “. Moreover, “in most countries the role of general practitioners has been neglected, while for many they are the first point of contact with the care system.”

covid-19 experience

The “vulnerability” of people, health and economic systems, in fact, the “common vulnerability” requires “international cooperation and coordination, knowing that it is not possible to confront an epidemic without proper health infrastructure, available to everyone around the world.” The distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine is an example.

“The only acceptable goal, consistent with a fair supply of a vaccine, is access to all, without exception. The motive for this universal availability cannot be (only) self-interest in protecting against variants of the virus. What is required for this is an alliance between science and humanity, it must It integrates and does not separate or, worse yet, oppose,” added Monsignor Paglia.

Solidarity antibodies

The Bishop emphasized that an emergency such as Covid-19 is overcome above all with anti-solidarity antibodies. Technical and clinical means of containment must be incorporated into a broad and in-depth search for the common good, which must counter the tendency to select advantages for the privileged and segregate the vulnerable on the basis of citizenship, income, politics, and age.”

Don’t abandon the patient: palliative care

In any case, “we should never abandon a sick person, even when no further treatments are available: palliative care, pain treatment and support is a requirement that should never be neglected.” Also in matters of public health, the experience we are going through which we hope will be left behind, at least in its most dramatic aspects, requires serious review. It is about the balance between a preventive and curative approach, between individual medicine and the collective dimension (given the close connection between personal health, rights and public health).”

“The brotherhood to which the Bible refers can be multiplied by many other passages and direct messages from Jesus. But it is time to take a step forward: we are interconnected; the world is interconnected, and the sooner we understand it, the sooner we will do so. There are no barriers; we have set them up and are destined to be unfortunately ineffective and even meaningless in the face of global emergencies”, concluded Monsignor Paglia.

patient care community

“We take care of the community is a network of more than 2,500 physicians practicing in New York City, primarily in the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn. It is one of the institutions chosen by the state of New York to launch the initiative MedicaidHealth insurance for the US government to help low-income people pay for health care. It serves more than 650,000 patients from largely underserved communities, including many Asian and Hispanic immigrants.

Somos Community Care consists only of physicians, all of whom are integrated into the community in which they practice their profession and provide their services in the language of their patients. Other characteristics of the care provided are attention to the social needs of the target population and special attention to direct doctor-patient communication.

(Source: Pontifical Academy of Life)