Analysis of the local authorities: National Health Survey 2007, Colombia 2011

Objective: this paper presents the results of the 2007 NationalHealth Survey’s (ens) module I, which deals with territorialmanagement of health regarding the capacity to managehealth in the municipalities and to characterize their sanitaryinfrastructure and public health surveillance. Methodology:a descriptive retrospective study was conducted with arepresentative sample of 238 Colombian municipalities fromall the categories, 223 of which answered the call. The sourceof information was the ens/2007, which was applied to thehealth secretaries of the sample’s municipalities. Results:more public and private health providers and health insurancecompanies are available in the municipalities belonging to thespecial category and to category 1. The sanitary infrastructureis insufficient but larger in the municipalities from thespecial category, particularly in the urban area. Public healthsurveillance for maternal and perinatal mortality, and for add and ari is higher in the municipalities from the specialcategory and from category 1. Conclusions: in spite of theefforts of the municipalities to improve health, the results showimportant inequalities between the rural and urban areas, andbetween the municipalities from the special category and themunicipalities from other categories. This situation calls forlarger investments for the sanitary infrastructure, the publichealth surveillance systems, and the programs of the lessdeveloped municipalities in order to prevent inequalities frombecoming progressive and to obtain better profits in terms ofthe people’s health.