FIFTH REPORT - World Health Organization

REGION OF THE AMERICAS 91
Population and other statistics
At the last census, taken in April 1970, the population
of Chile was 8 834 820. Population estimates
and some other vital statistics for the period under
review are given below:
Mean population . . . 9
Number of live births . .
Birth rate (per 1000 population)
Number of deaths
Death rate (per 1000
population)
Natural increase ( %) .
Number of infant deaths
Infant mortality rate (per
1000 live births) . .
Number of deaths, 1 -4
years
Death rate, 1 -4 years (per
1000 population at risk)
Number of maternal
deaths
1969
566 000 9 726 000 9 922 000
286 807 261 609 273 518
28.1
84680
8.9
1.92
21 156
78.7
3 466
3.3
1970
26.9
83166
8.6
1.83
20 750
79.3
3 684
3.5
1971
27.6
83240
8.4
1.92
19 271
70.5
3 075
2.9
1972
10 123 000
277 891
27.5
88658
8.8
1.87
19 752
71.1
2 885
488 439 389
Maternal mortality rate
(per 1000 live births) . . 1.8 1.7 1.4 1.6
Of the 83 240 deaths recorded in 1971, the main
causes were: 1 pneumonia (11 180), chronic rheumatic
heart disease, hypertensive disease, ischaemic heart
disease, other forms of heart disease (10 322), malignant
neoplasms (10 000), cerebrovascular diseases (5934),
birth injury, difficult labour and other anoxic and
hypoxic conditions, other causes of perinatal mortality
(4534), symptoms and ill- defined conditions (4453),
accidents (3983, including 1810 in motor -vehicle accidents),
bacillary dysentery and amoebiasis, enteritis
and other diarrhoeal diseases (3934), cirrhosis of the
liver (3495), tuberculosis, all forms (2275), diabetes
mellitus (1212), bronchitis, emphysema and asthma
(1202), congenital anomalies (1076), influenza (1061),
avitaminoses and other nutritional deficiency (1048).
The communicable diseases most frequently notified
in 1972 were: influenza (14 609), measles (6299),
typhoid and paratyphoid fevers (4527), scarlet fever
(3481), whooping -cough (3380), syphilis, new cases
(2982), infectious hepatitis (2458), diphtheria (662),
amoebiasis (144), meningococcal infections (80), poliomyelitis
(11), typhus (4), rabies in man (1).
Organization of the public health services
The National Health Service is responsible for the
public health activities in the country and for medical
care services for beneficiaries of social insurance
schemes. The Ministry of Public Health provides 95
of all health services in Chile. Additional medical and
2.6
452
CHILE
health services are provided by the national medical
service for civil servants, the army, the police, the
State railways, the universities, and the prison authorities.
The health activities of these bodies are coordinated
by the National Advisory Health Council. The
National Health Service, which is under the control of
the Ministry of Public Health, is centralized at the
policy- making level and decentralized at the executive
level. Its main components are the National Council
and the Directorate -General. The Minister of Public
Health is Chairman of the National Council, which
includes representatives of public and private organizations.
The Directorate -General, which has the overall
responsibility for the National Health Service, is
organized in two departments -the administrative and
the technical. The functions of the latter department
consist in the establishment of standards, assessment,
technical supervision and control, planning and evaluation.
Its subdepartments are concerned with health
protection, promotion and rehabilitation, statistics,
architecture and planning. A subunit of the technical
department deals with rural health. The technical
department is also in charge of the zonal directorates,
which represent the second health administrative level.
The country is divided into 13 health zones and one
subzone (Arica). Each health zone is subdivided into
health areas, of which there are at present 55. At all
levels there are technical and administrative advisory
councils which are responsible for maintaining effective
coordination and of which the members are hospital
directors. The hospitals represent the executive and
operational units of the health service, which is based
on the concept of integral medical assistance.
Hospital services
In 1970 Chile had 281 hospitals and inpatient establishments,
providing a total of 35 861 beds, of which
35 105 were in 260 government establishments. The
bed /population ratio was 3.7 per 1000. The 35 681
beds were distributed as follows:
Category and number
General hospitals 180
Rural hospitals 64
Maternity hospitals 5
Number of beds
25 597
1 443
97
Paediatric hospitals 6 1441
Infectious diseases hospital 1 154
Tuberculosis hospitals 5 1 140
Psychiatric hospitals 5 4 631
Cancer hospital 1 106
Hospital for chronic diseases 1 205
Hospitals for traumatology 8 490
Hospital for physiotherapy 1 88
Other establishments 4 469
Outpatient facilities were available in 1972 at 174
1 International Classification of Diseases, 1965 Revision. hospital outpatient departments, which recorded 5.5