Ecuador - Health

Health

The current structure of the Ecuadorian public health care system dates back to 1967. The Ministry of the Public Health (Ministerio de Salud Publica del Ecuador) is the responsible entity of the regulation and creation of the public health policies and health care plans. The "Minister of Public Health" is appointed directly by the President of the republic. The current minister or Ecuadorian general surgeon, is Carina Vance.

The philosophy of the Ministry of Public Health is the social support and service to the most vulnerable population and its main plan of action lies around communitarian health and preventive medicine.

The public health-care system allows patients to be attended daily in public general hospitals, with no previous appointment by general practitioners and specialists in the "External Consultation" (Consulta Externa) at no cost. This is done in the 4th basic specialties of pediatric, gynecology, clinic medicine, and surgery. There are also public hospitals specialized to treat chronic diseases, target a particular group of the population, or to provide a better attention in some medical specialties. Some examples in this group are the Gynecologic Hospitals or Maternities, Children Hospitals, Geriatric Hospitals and Oncology Institutes.

Although well equipped general hospitals are found in the major cities or capitals of province, there are basic hospitals in the smaller towns and canton cities, for family care consultation and treatments in pediatrics, gynecology, clinic medicine, and surgery.

Community health care centers (Centros de Salud), are found inside metropolitan areas of cities and in rural areas. These are Day Hospitals with attention to patients whose hospitalization is under 24 hours. The doctors assigned to rural communities, where the population of indigenous people can be substantial, have under their responsibility small clinics for the attention of the patients in the same fashion as the Day Hospitals in the major cities. The attention in this case observes and respect the culture of the community.

The public health-care system should not be confused with the Ecuadorian Social Security health-care service which is dedicated to the individuals with formal employment and who are affiliated obligatorily through their employers. Citizens with no formal employment, may still contribute to the social security system voluntarily and have access to the medical services rendered by the social security system. The Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) has under its administration several major hospitals and medical sub-centers across the nation.

Ecuadorians have a life expectancy of 75 years. The infant mortality rate is 13 per 1,000 live births, a major improvement from approximately 76 in the early 1980s and 140 in 1950. 23% of children under five are chronically malnourished. Population in some rural areas have no access to potable water and its supply is provided by mean of water tankers. There are 686 malaria cases per 100,000 people. Basic health care, including doctor's visits, basic surgeries, and basic medications, has been provided free since 2008. However, some public hospitals are in poor condition and often lack necessary supplies to attend the high demand of patients. Private hospitals and clinics are well equipped but still expensive for the majority of the population.