Doctors protests in several Brazilian cities

Criado em 17/07/13 17h28 e atualizado em 19/07/13 08h54
Por Agencia Brasil Edição:Nira Foster Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasilia – On Tuesday, July 16, many Brazilian doctors protested in capital cities around the country. They railed against vetoes by president Dilma Rousseff that they believe have disfigured new legislation intended to regulate the medical profession. They criticized plans in a new government program to import doctors and a new rule that would virtually extend medical school for two more years. There were also widespread attacks by doctors and associations that represent them on the public health system (“SUS”) in general.

The president of the Rio de Janeiro Regional Medical Council (“Cremerj”), Márcia Rosa de Araújo, pointed out that the problems in public health are not restricted to difficulties in contracting doctors. She said there were structural defects in the system itself that needed more attention. “We have doctors that can go to underserved areas (“o interior”), but the government does not create an adequate workplace for them. They will be unable to make an x-ray or even run simple blood tests,” she said.

The protests in São Paulo, for example, were focused on the government’s new More Doctors Program (“Programa Mais Médicos”) that will create what amounts to an additional two years of schooling (actually a work period in SUS - the public health system) before a medical student can get his MD. The program also plans to import foreign doctors for underserved areas of the country –usually urban slums and remote rural areas.

Renato Azevedo Júnior, president of the São Paulo CRM (“Cremesp”) says the problem with SUS is lack of investments. “The lack of doctors is a consequence of federal government negligence. We have to eliminate corruption in the public health system,” he declared, adding that a career for doctors in the SUS is unattractive because of the poor working conditions.

In Brasilia, protests concentrated on Dilma Rousseff’s line-item vetoes in medical legislation (“ato medico”), one of which eliminated an article that gave doctors the exclusive right to make diagnoses. Most doctors consider this an essential point in the law and oppose the vetoes. But, for other health providers, such as those in physical therapeutics or nurses and psychologists, the idea of expanding their duties found favor.

The director of the Doctors Union in Rio (“Sindmed-RJ”), José Romano, says the principal objective of the protests was to make member’s dissatisfaction public. “Doctors want to tell Congress that this new program (More Doctors), is a mistake that should be voted down. It is harmful to the Brazilian people, it makes the public health system unviable, economizes money for the government and does not meet the demands of the people. The people want hospitals that function right (‘estruturada’), health teams that function right. While we hear a lot about how good Brazilian medicine is; we hear that what is not good is health services management in this country,” he declared, adding that doctors just do not want to work in the SUS because there is no career plan for them and the work conditions for a dedicated professional are terrible.

Editor: Nira Foster

Translation: Mayra Borges / Olga Bardawil / Allen Bennett