Almost 25,000 People Died in 2016 in Chile While Waiting for Medical Treatment in the Public Health Care System

By Nono Barahona. April 15, 2017

Waiting room in Salvador hospital in Santiago.
Photo taken by author last year while waiting with
his mom for a blood test on her.

SANTIAGO, Chile.  A report submitted to the Chilean Congress by the "Subsecretaría de Redes Asistenciales", a Chilean government agency that monitors the operation of the public health system, says that 24,817 people died in 2016 while on the waiting lists of the 29 health care services existing in the country.

"El Mercurio", an influential Chilean newspaper, says that out of the total number of patients who died, 22,459 died while waiting for a first visit to a specialist physician, and that 2,358 died while waiting for surgery.

The report states that 74.4% of those who died were more than 65 years of age and that, considering the total number of the dead patients, 52.6% were male.

The government agency claimed that there is no direct relationship between the cause of death of the 24,817 patients and the fact that they were on waiting lists.

However, almost any Chilean reading an article like this makes a direct immediate connection between the fact that the patients were on waiting lists and the fact that they are dead, with the implication that they died for not receiving medical care on time.

Waiting lists are a feature of the Chilean public health care system, which is dominated by hospitals.

The Chilean public health care system is plagued by a shortage of specialized doctors and of doctors in general, resulting in that patients are placed on “waiting lists” on which they wait for their turn to get treatment for their ailments from a hospital doctor.

Since there is no limit on how long a public health patient has to wait for treatment, due to the shortage of doctors and staff, and sometimes due to the shortage of beds to accommodate patients in hospitals, a waiting list patient may have to spend months waiting for their turn to get medical treatment, giving the Chilean public health care system a very bad reputation.

In this regard, an article published by "La Tercera", a major Santiago newspaper, updated as of June 7, 2015, said in its headline that people on waiting lists had to wait even up to 6 years in some cases, with country-wide averages of 273 days for an oncologist and 727 days for a specialist in abdominal surgery.

On the other hand, middle class and upper class Chileans typically have health care insurance and get medical treatment in private clinics, where there are no waiting lists.

Therefore, waiting lists are for those Chileans who can not afford the private health care system.