Ambulatorinių asmens sveikatos priežiūros paslaugų prieinamumas ir sauga ekstremalios situacjos metu dėl COVID-19
| Date |
|---|
2021 |
Ekstremalios situacijos metu poreikis efektyviai valdyti situaciją nulėmė poreikį keisti ir iš esmės vykdyti teisinį reguliavimą. Šiame straipsnyje aptariami svarbiausi sprendimai, kuriais buvo siekiama perorganizuoti ir plėtoti ambulatorinių asmens sveikatos priežiūros paslaugų teikimą ekstremalios situacijos metu, įvertintos teisinės priemonės, užtikrinusios šių paslaugų prieinamumą ir saugą.
Decisions in health care are usually based on medical evidence. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the executive power had the responsibility to make urgent decisions in the absence of scientific evidence and to implement international recommendations tailored to specific local conditions. The pursuit of ensuring the availability and safety of health care services required timely legal regulation, which can be conditionally divided into these main categories: regulation establishing a special epidemiological regime in health care institutions and changes in the regulation of providing health care services. This research revealed that the general infection control requirements set out in the pre-pandemic legislation were sufficient, but the specific regulation, related to the management of COVID-19 spread (both, legal requirements and the soft law recommendations) were numerous and changed very dynamically due to the changing epidemiological situation. Legislative measures ensured the financial affordability of health care services for COVID-19 and febrile patients. Just ten days after the announcement of the quarantine, the decisions taken by the Ministry of Health fundamentally changed the organization of outpatient health care services by introducing new organizational structures for patients - fever clinics, mobile points, Hotline 1808, and legally regulated the provision of epidemiologically safe tele-medicine (i.e. remote) health care services. These solutions are successful examples of the implementation of international recommendations at the local level.