Officials from the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) presented the strategies to address the population’s aging with specialize care.
Maria Eugenia Villalta, medical manager of the CCSS, recalled that the Policy for the Elderly was approved in October 2016 and the action plan in June of this year.
At present one of the priorities is to reinforce the attention in the cantons with more population: Pérez Zeledón, Cartago, Coronado, Pavas and Turrialba .
As part of the strategies they have been working in the specialization of medical staff in geriatrics. Currently, there are 95 geriatricians serving the population, 36 of them are concentrated in the Raúl Blanco Cervantes Geriatric Hospital.
Fernando Morales, director of the Geriatric Hospital, explained that the idea is for the medical center to become a specialized place in a short term, where high-complexity cases will be addressed. To this end, they need to increase the number of beds and operating rooms. This has already been approved by the Board of Directors.
Vilma García, coordinator of the Senior Program, explained that about 4% of the population (about 400 thousand people) is over 65 years old. It is expected that by 2025 it will be 12%, that is, about 600 thousand; and by 2050 25%, about 1 million 300 thousand.
This means we need to establish specialized groups for this population… Age is not synonymous with disease, but as the years pass, there is a greater risk of complications and chronic diseases,”
said García.
Since August 2nd, 16 doctors began the specialization in geriatrics in the medical center, where they will be for five years.