Demands of the new president Chronic Disease Society

The lack of care continuity and better accessibility are unmet needs of chronic patients. Interview with the president of the new Spanish Society for the Care of People with Chronic Diseases, Dr. Juan Torres.

Hence the need to create the Spanish Society of Care for People with Chronic Diseases (SEAPEC)capable of addressing the difficult situation of chronicity in Spain, which has been abandoned”, he explains to EFEsalud Juan Torres, also head of the Internal Medicine service at the Infanta Leonor-Virgen de la Torre University Hospital in Madrid.

More than twenty-two million people, close to half of the Spanish population, suffer from chronic diseases. Pathologies that, however, can be relegated to the background.

The initiative, materialized in a multidisciplinary scientific society, is created by different health and social health professionals, together with associations of those affected by chronic diseases.

Thus, it aims to address the reality of these patients and respond to the unmet needs, offering comprehensive care continuity that improves the quality of life of people with chronic diseases.

The impact of covid-19 on chronicity

The president of SEAPEC, Dr. Juan Torres. courtesy photo

With covid-19, the chronicity situation in Spain has worsened, removing these patients from the health system and therefore making their control difficult and favoring hospital admissions, considers the president of SEAPEC.

“Many of the processes of these patients have ceased to be attended to. We have done what we could, but accessibility has gotten worse, ”she points out.

A panorama that, in addition, stages the existing crisis in Primary Care, the basis of the system’s care, as the interviewee points out.

Improve coordination and attention

For Torres, “it is essential that there be coordination between the different professionals who care for chronic patients to improve their care.”

A care that is due in part to the tension of the health system, since there is a lot of saturation, accessibility problems and endless waiting lists, he explains to EFESalud.

“We have many admissions and readmissions of chronic patients who are worse controlled and this worsening of the patient’s accessibility to the health system is conditioning greater disability,” he stresses.

From left to right: Ana Belén Ramírez, Treasurer and 2nd Secretary of SEAPEC; Dr. Juan Torres, president of SEAPEC; doctor Luis Mendo, SEAPEC vice president; Jimena García, 1st Secretary of SEAPEC; and Ruth Serrano, member of SEAPEC.

“United and committed by the chronic patient”

For the president of SEAPEC, the key to addressing the situation of chronic patients is the union and commitment of all health professionals.

“All together we have to change how care is being taken,” he says.

In this way, in addition to fighting to improve patient care, they will include them within the Board of Directors of the new medical society for chronic diseases through associations dedicated to it, which implies a whole novelty.

Among them, participate Ruth Serrano, patient and general director of ACCU ESPAÑAa confederation that brings together thirty associations representing more than 360,000 Spaniards affected by the inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn y ulcerative colitis.

The president of SEAPEC specifies what are the four lines of action which will carry out:

1. Coordination between professionals and care continuity.
2. Prevention to delay the development of chronic pathologiesthrough diet, physical activity and health education.
3. Patient adherence to treatment.
4. Assistive technologies and tools (digital health and telemedicine).