PROTEGER LA VIDA DE LAS PERSONAS EN SITUACIÓN DE CALLE EN CHILE: LA EXPERIENCIA DE LAS RUTAS MÉDICAS EN LA PANDEMIA

Abstract

The scope and modality of services health care for the homeless people were challenged in all countries to respond to the global call to protect the lives of the most excluded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the Chilean government, together with municipalities and civil society organizations, designed and implemented a strategy that incorporated important improvements in street health care, such as the strengthening of the Outreach Medical Routes. This effort breaks the paradigms of traditional medical care. The good results of the approach of health personnel to the streets between 2020 and 2021, generated knowledge in the system and provided in-depth knowledge of a diverse epidemiological reality for a population that, not being able to 'stay at home', endured the pandemic as rarely seen before.