CONFERENCIA INAUGURAL LISTAS DE ESPERA Y EL ROL ESTRATÉGICO DE LA ATENCIÓN PRIMARIA DE SALUD: ESTRATEGIAS PARA LA REDUCCIÓN DE TIEMPOS DE ESPERA EN EL SISTEMA PÚBLICO CHILENO

Waiting lists are an inherent tool in managed health systems with defined entry points, neces sary to organize non-urgent specialist and elective surgery care in an orderly manner. In Chile, Primary Health Care (PHC) functions as the entry point for the public system, serving the Na tional Health Fund -FONASA- beneficiary population, which comprises 83% of the country’s inhabitants. The objective of this presentation is to analyze the strategic role of PHC in reducing waiting times and describe strategies implemented to strengthen its resolution capacity. Current waiting times represent the lowest achieved since 2016, with a median of 266 days for specialty consultations and 299 days for surgeries, reducing 87 and 362 days respectively since December 2021. The government strategy is based on three axes: increasing production, improving PHC resolution, and strengthening transparency and information systems. Interventions include service portfolio expansion, infrastructure modernization through new technical standards, and digital transformation with telemedicine implementation that grew 159% in teleophthalmol ogy and 120% in teledermatology. Chilean PHC, with 2,200 establishments and 115,611 staff members, performed 57 million annual consultations maintaining 91.6% resolution capacity. It is concluded that PHC strengthening constitutes the most sustainable strategy for reducing waiting lists, with the transformation towards universal, more resolutive and digitally enabled PHC being fundamental, while preserving the human connection characteristic of primary care.