- Primary Care in areas managed by Ribera Salud attends to patients in a maximum of 4 days compared to 18 in the remainder of the province dealt with by Public health
The average waiting time for an appointment in Primary Care in the Torrevieja and Vinalopó (Elche) Health Authorities, managed by Ribera Salud, is a maximum of 4 days.
This is a period “almost five times less than for patients who are dependent on public health departments in the Valencian Community, where, on average, they are 18 days”, according to a statement made by the private concessionaire.
These figures, according to Ribera Salud are taken from an audit carried out by the Generalitat in 2018, where they are characterised as “having less delay than the direct management centres.
Torrevieja provides a first appointment in Primary Care in just 4 days, however, if it is an urgent matter, the care is carried out without any delay”.
Ribera Salud, which ends its concession in Torrevieja in October next year, recently improved telephone communication of both the Torrevieja health department and Vinalopó “with the aim of improving patient care in health centres and thus facilitating the management of their medical and nursing appointments. A measure that has contributed to considerably reducing response times in providing faster and more efficient care “.
Ribera Salud also maintains that the admission and patient management service has been reorganised with the aim of streamlining the administrative procedures of users in the health centres administered by the two departments. Given that the largest influx of users in health centres is concentrated in the morning hours, Ribera Salud has centralised administrative management in the afternoon in Primary Care.
In this way, when a patient is looking for an administrative appointment or collection of documentation, from now on, they will be asked, whenever possible, to make their appointment in the afternoon, thereby avoiding busy periods in the morning.
Ribera Salud has also introduced the YOsalud tool that allows patients to follow their usual consultations without having to go to health centres.
YOsalud allows the patient to access their health information “from anywhere, avoiding unnecessary travel and interacting with healthcare professionals directly and quickly. It is also a key work tool for healthcare professionals, since it achieves better and greater control of patients, especially those suffering from chronic illnesses. It reduces administrative consultations in face-to-face consultations and guarantees correct communication with patients and / or caregivers.
In Torrevieja, during the first months of the pandemic -March, April, May- users familiar with the tool used it on more than 80,000 occasions, however there were numerous complaints with Doctors failing to respond to inquiries immediately, something that has now been resolved.
However, Ribera Salud uses a different management system to the rest of the Generalitat, Florence, that is not integrated into the general system so patients arriving from other areas can often suffer delays while their medical records are obtained.
