The Government of Galicia is advancing a public health observatory project in Galicia through the open data platform

Xunta has just published on the Galician Contracts platform a contract to create the Galician Health Observatory, an initiative whose premise is to respond to the following goals: to facilitate a consolidated view, as complete as possible, of the health status of the Galician Health Observatory community; Act as an aid in decision-making, at various levels of public health; To serve as an aid to health research, providing data in a simple and open way for experts; Or provide a control panel to support the management of the General Directorate of Public Health.

Specifically, in the last quarter of 2021, with the purpose of reporting on the budget to be allocated by the Galician Executive for Public Health in 2022, the Minister of Health submitted in Parliament that public health protection programs would amount to an investment of 28.9 million, which would be used, among other things Others, to develop projects such as the Galicia Public Health Observatory.

So far, the observatory has a base bidding budget of over €800,000. The construction, start-up and maintenance work is divided into four phases, running from 2022 to 2024. In addition, it will be 100% funded under the REACT-EU hub of the 2014-2020 FEDER Galicia operational programme, as part of the EU’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As specified in the technical specifications, among the functions of the observatory, the following stand out: the creation of a knowledge space about health information, through a series of periodic reports; ensuring that this information reaches the largest number of health factors in an understandable manner; And linking the health information of the indicators with the various measures that are being developed in Galicia in this field.

On the other hand, the observatory expects the establishment of a section that reflects the activity carried out by the General Directorate of Public Health in its fields of work. This section will include information on screening programs, environmental health plans and programs, food safety programs, and infectious disease prevention and control.