Foreword
This report is the first in a new series of reports reviewing public health policies across selected OECD countries. Health care systems across OECD are increasingly under pressure from social changes – including demographic changes and aging populations – and emerging new health challenges – from a growing burden of chronic disease, to re-emerging and new communicable diseases, or a growing burden of mental ill-health – which demand a strong public health response. The OECD Reviews of Public Health provide in-depth analysis and policy recommendations to strengthen priority areas of countries’ public health systems, highlighting best practice examples that allow learning from shared experiences, and the spreading of innovative approaches.
In particular, this series of Reviews of Public Health builds on the OECD’s long-standing programme of work on the economics of public health, applying this extensive expertise to country-specific challenges. The OECD Reviews of Public Health are a tool to help countries to strengthen their national public health systems, and help countries to develop and implement innovative public health actions.
This OECD Public Health Review of Chile seeks to assess the current scale of public health challenges, and efficacy of existing public health policies to respond to them, in Chile. The report funds that Chile has a well-functioning, well-organised and effectively governed health system and public health architecture, but that further fine-tuning is needed. Faced with significant public health challenges, significant change is needed, which must happen at scale and at pace.