MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay adopts pioneering plan for treating patients with strokes

All cases of stroke will be admitted through a single, universal and free emergency door for treatment,” the MSP explained

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou last week signed the decree whereby his country would join the Global Stroke Alliance, after an international conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Under the new scheme, Uruguay's Health Ministry (MSP) guarantees for universal and free emergency care in case of strokes.

Now, “any user of the National Integrated Health System who presents symptoms of having a stroke must be transferred to the closest or most accessible thrombolysis center in the place where he/she is, regardless of the health provider to which he/she is affiliated. In other words, all cases of stroke will be admitted through a single, universal and free emergency door for treatment,” the MSP explained.

Also resulting from this year's meeting, Uruguay will be holding the 2023 edition in Punta del Este in November. “It is an honor for Uruguay to have been designated today, on the basis of its progress in stroke, for the first time as the venue for the Latin American and Caribbean meeting of the Global Stroke Alliance, in conjunction with the Ibero-American Society of Cerebrovascular Disease,” Health Minister Daniel Salinas pointed out.

The goal of the World Stroke Organization (WSO) is to change the line of work in the approach to preventing cardiovascular pathologies and strokes. During the Sau Paulo event, the organization and Brazilian Health authorities praised Uruguay's “innovative and egalitarian” plan.

In 2020 the MSP created the brain health program, the first and only one in the Americas and the third worldwide, together with Poland and Norway, which positions the country as an outstanding reference in the subject at a global level, with achievements such as the creation of a national stroke protocol, which brings together national guidelines for the approach to acute ischemic stroke; the incorporation in December 2021 of financial coverage through the National Resources Fund of mechanical thrombectomy for the treatment of hyperacute ischemic stroke; the training of 3,000 healthcare professionals for the best approach to this type of episodes; and now the single, universal availability of treatment.