Health plans and programmes in Chile

Abstract

A brief account of the health achievements in Chile, in the past century, includes the descent of infant and maternal mortality, of vaccine preventable infectious diseases, and a significant increase of life expectancy at birth. The role of the medical profession, through its leaders, in bringing about such progress, is emphasized; they belonged to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile; to the Medical Societies, to Parliament, to the National Health Service and to the Medical Association (Colegio Médico, through its Public Health Department). I believe thet the main perquisites for those achievements have been: 1) a people conscious of its right to the most valued good – health; 2) governmental political will to assign the right priority to the required conditionsforthe exercise of that right; and 3) the insight and capability of the health professionals for setting forth at the right times, the proposals aimed at the fulfilment of the health expectations of the community and of the targets set in the health plans.