Also, Panama aspires to become a pharmaceutical ‘hub’, which could solve the shortage of medicines that the nation usually goes through.
Panama is the country of the ‘hub’ or regional centers because of its privileged geographical position, with its main international airport that serves as a connection for flights from all over the continent, its logistical capacity promoted by the Panama Canal and now also seeks to become a focus of medical tourism with the inauguration of the City of Health.
The City of Health of the Social Security Fund (CSS), located on the outskirts of the Panamanian capital and with an investment of more than $1 billion, was officially inaugurated last January as “the most important public health work of the last 100 years” in the Central American country.
Raised on a land of 31.9 hectares, it consists of four high-complexity hospitals, five institutes, 1,368 beds, 256 intensive care units (ICUs), 67 semi-intensive units, 24 anesthesia recovery sections, 51 surgery operating rooms and 313 medical offices.
“With this we have thought not only of attending to Panama, but we have received many international visits that see the City of Health as a public hospital with the capacity to serve as an interconsulter and also to be able to give it services and enter what is called health tourism,” the director general of the CSS, Dr., told EFE. Enrique Lau Cortés.
The Dr. Lau Cortés, who is about to finish his term, stresses that Panama can be competitive in prices, with “about 30 to 40 percent of what it costs elsewhere,” in addition to having “doctors of high prestige and excellent training, many internationally certified,” a level to which the City of Health is now added.
“For example, you could say that the first robotic surgery in a public hospital in Latin America was done in Panama and we have a radiation therapy center in the Cancerology hospital that has an (Elekta) Unity, which is a machine to give radiation therapy treatment that has a built-in magnetic resonance imaging. It is the third team across the continent,” he stressed.
In a region where public health is characterized by its deficiencies and precariousness, it surprises a hospital complex such as the City of Health, as EFE was able to see in a tour of the facilities, with modern infrastructure and equipment, superior even to some private hospitals in the Central American country, but Dr. Lau Cortés clarifies that he does not want to compete with them, but “to help.”
‘We have services that they don’t have and when they have services that we don’t have, we hire them. So it is that national strategic alliance. Panama is very attractive, has facilities to come, we have an air ‘hub’, where you can come from anywhere,” said the manager.
In addition, he continues, “the Panamanian would say that it is the most important asset that our country has, is an open, sincere, friendly person, therefore, I think we have interesting characteristics, we have technology, infrastructure, knowledge and people (…) We have the factors (to) do this health tourism project.”
Future: research and a pharmaceutical ‘hub’
Also, Panama aspires to become a pharmaceutical ‘hub’, which could solve the shortage of medicines that the nation usually goes through, with also high prices.
The director general of the CSS detailed that they are thinking of “creating that ‘hub’ of medicines that provide facilities, which could be, for example, in a special economic zone, where international companies find favorable ground to produce and export their medicines from Panama.”
“I know initiatives that aim to take advantage of the Free Trade Agreement that we have with several countries and the ease to export from Panama, to locate their companies in this country and produce medicines. The issue here would be raw material and the raw material can be found at the international level,” he acknowledged.
Another objective in the future is, through its Institute for Research and Innovation and Knowledge Management, “to reach innovation, to generate wealth of knowledge to self-finance such a large and expensive work,” and also have “the best simulation center in the region,” with which doctors are prepared before they treat a patient for the first time.
This article has been translated after first appearing in PanamaAmerica