The global onset of the coronavirus and the attendant need for health-related responses have exposed the debilitating limitations of the health services in Latin America and the Caribbean countries, says a recent report prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC).
While most countries in the region have, over the years, managed to attract only periodic serious outside attention to their national health deficiencies, the ECLAC report, which deals with health services as part of a wider summary of how COVID-19 is impacting Latin America and the Caribbean (“Latin America and the Caribbean and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Economic and social effects:” April 2020) asserts that the underdevelopment of the health sector in most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean has been the result of “underinvestment in health,” a circumstance that has resulted in “shortages of skilled labour and medical supplies” and “escalating costs.”
