Video consultations are here to stay

patricia gajardo Deputy Manager Outpatient Services Isapre Cruz Blanca Health Insurance

Why would you travel to a face-to face appointment? It doesn’t really make sense for less serious health issues that can be dealt with remotely.

We have looked after our beneficiaries by making sure they don’t need to go out for appointments, to stop the spread of the pandemic. Also by supporting healthcare systems, which are on the brink of collapse.

We have brought in video consultations, which is a service that has been around for a while, but the public in general hadn’t made the most of it. Perhaps because they didn’t really know how to use it, or didn’t trust it. I think the feedback has been amazing, considering that everyone in the organisation is working from home remotely.

I think this way of working has come to stay. It’s a great way of people not wasting time or risking infection when they go to A&E for something minor.

You have to remember that healthcare teams are exhausted right now. I have a daughter who is a nurse and works on the front line, and I can see she has lost weight and is very anxious. But that is not my only worry. My mother

SANTIAGO — CHILE

is 85 years old and has a complex cancer. She lives at home with a nephew. Not being able to visit her at all has been very stressful.

I think the company could easily have said: We will do what we are obliged to and nothing more. But the truth is that the company and I have always given more than we have had to, because we know this is an unprecedented situation and we need to be there for people. That has been really special.

I am a very positive person, and I think that through all this I have been able to react well and give our beneficiaries the answers they have needed. Our objective, during this time, has been to provide and maintain our services as much as possible.�