Ensuring sexual and reproductive healthcare services amidst a pandemic: Experiences from health workers in Lima, Peru

Abstract

Nowadays there is an emerging interest on health system resilience capacity during emergencies as the one created by the COVID-19 Pandemic. This article contributes to this emerging field of studies by analysing the impact of the state´s policy responses COVID-19 (as lockdowns) on the Peruvian health system, specifically on the delivery of non-covid services, sexual and reproductive health services, and describe the strategies deployed by health workers to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis in Peru, a country that have been dramatically impacted by the pandemic. The article, based on the analysis of depth interviews with 11 health workers and one health supervisor working at sexual and reproductive health services at public health services Lima during 2020 and 2021, describe how pre-existing conditions of the health system (as poor infrastructure and deficit of human resources) magnified the negative effects of the measures taken to control de pandemic, undermining the “resilience” of the health system.