Coming of foreign doctors will bring improvements to poor areas, says health minister

Criado em 16/09/13 16h37 e atualizado em 18/09/13 12h44
Por Fernanda Cruz Edição:s Fonte:Agência Brasil

São Paulo – Brazil’s ministry of health Alexandre Padilha said on Monday (September 16) that the coming of foreign doctors to underserved areas will encourage improvements in the infrastructure of healthcare units: “The biggest obstacle was having a doctor. To build a healthcare unit, to provide it with equipment and to keep it in good conditions are actions that the local government feels encouraged to take when they see we’ve found a doctor to serve that population,” he declared during the opening ceremony of Mercedes-Benz’s Internal Workplace Accident Prevention Week, in São Bernardo do Campo, a municipality in the state of São Paulo.

Padilha also mentioned situations he experienced when he worked as a doctor in the Amazon rainforest. The minister was the supervisor of a research group from the University of São Paulo (“USP”), which worked in local communities. He says that the development brought about by the arrival of the doctors was clear to be seen.

“The places where we worked completely lacked structure. The presence of the doctors encouraged the local government, other universities, and organizations to provide structure. Indigenous villages were completely deprived, and now they rely on a surgery center and an outpatient clinic. The town of Santarém, in the state of Pará, didn’t have a college. Now they have a Medicine School which provides a large local hospital.”

The minister further stated that all the municipalities enrolled in the More Doctors program will be given resources from the Ministry of Health for the purpose of renovating, expanding and building healthcare units.

According to the minister, applications can be submitted to the More Doctors program every month primarily by Brazilian doctors, but he stressed that foreigners may fill only those positions not taken by nationals: “Little by little, we’ll be able to show that the program’s not taking jobs away from any Brazilian doctor.”

Editors: Carolina Pimentel / Lícia Marques
Translators: Fabrício Ferreira

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