Atención de enfermedades crónicas durante la pandemia por covid-19. Un análisis de las narrativas de trabajadores de hospitales públicos del conurbano bonaerense (Argentina).

Objective: To analyze the narratives of those who work in public hospitals in the Buenos Aires suburbs, about their experiences in the care and care of people living with a chronic non-communicable disease, focusing on the difficulties and obstacles that emerge in the context of covid-19 pandemic. Methodology: 13 in-depth interviews were conducted during the months of May and August 2021, using a script of questions/topics and virtually. In the analysis, we started from the narrative approach to reconstruct the way in which the actors produce, represent and contextualize their experiences. Results: On the one hand, temporary obstacles were defined, such as the fear of people with this type of disease to go out and go to a hospital, the closure of outpatient clinics and the concentration of workers and workers, and resources for the care of the covid-19 pandemic; on the other, structural problems --promoted by the epidemic--, such as the intermittent availability of medication, the difficulties of articulating with other institutions/levels of care, the access or not of patients to public transport and their possibility or not of paying for other transport. Conclusion: During the pandemic, the work was focused, both materially and symbolically, on the containment of covid-19 cases. Follow-up, diagnosis and care of chronic non-communicable diseases were postponed. The current challenge is to attend to the new socioepidemiological reality that is configured when the sars-Cov-2 virus decreases its circulation and severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]