Compartilhar:
Brazil’s health minister predicts long-term outcomes for More Doctors program
Criado em 22/10/13 17h26
e atualizado em 22/10/13 17h27
Por Thais Leitão and Danilo Macedo
Edição:s
Fonte:Agência Brasil
Brasília – Brazil’s health minister Alexandre Padilha declared on Tuesday (October 22) during a ceremony at the Palácio do Planalto, the seat of the Brazilian government, that president Dilma Rousseff’s signing the law that originated the More Doctors program was an act of courage whose effects are to be felt over the upcoming years.
He said that the impact of the program on the Public Unified Health Care System (“SUS”) will be perceived as waiting lines at emergency departments will be shorter, more young students will me admitted into the newly created spaces in medical schools, and more Brazilian doctors will take part in residency programs.
According to Padilha, “the debate promoted by the program will help change the mindset still found in the country, according to which health care only happens inside a highly complex hospital, and that the right to study medicine is not for all the population.”
He added: “Nothing can be more frustrating for a doctor working at an emergency room than getting a patient that doesn’t have to be there, whose case could be solved in a basic health ward; or being afraid of releasing a patient because you don’t know if there’s a doctor in the care center near the patient’s house.” He also denied that the More Doctors program was an emergency measure, or a temporary one.
To those who think the program is an electoral strategy, Padilha pointed out that the initiative was launched with the purpose of meeting the demands made by mayors from all parties and all regions of the country who have to deal with the shortage of doctors in their municipalities.
During the event, the health minister also addressed a Cuban doctor who was antagonized by some of his peers after he arrived in Brazil. He is currently working in the municipality of Zé Doca, in the state of Maranhão. “[The people] who received you with xenophobia in Fortaleza [capital city of the state of Ceará] do not reflect the spirit of the Brazilian people or most of the doctors.”
Padilha also underscored the importance of the law amendment that enables the Ministry of Health to grant participating doctors permission to practice without having to wait for their registration card to be ready. It will serve as a sort of medical identification card, expiring after there years, and it allows doctors to perform the activities put forth by the program in the municipality to which they were individually assigned, in basic care centers only.
In the minister’s view, it is crucial that the country’s Regional Medical Boards (“CRMs”) keep reinforcing ethical conduct and lawful professional practice and listed the outcomes of the program: 1,232 doctors working under the More Doctors program, 748 of whom are Brazilians, 484 are professionals holding a foreign diploma registered at the CRM. As yet, 196 health professionals have not received their registration card. Over 4.2 million Brazilians are reached by the program. In the first month alone, 320 thousand consultations were held in basic health care centers, and 13,000 more patients taken medicines at the Popular Drugstores.
After the end of October, 2,180 other professionals graduated abroad, selected in the second stage of the program, will be sent to work in areas not assisted by doctors.
Editors: Nádia Franco / Lícia Marques
Translator: Fabrício Ferreira
Deixe seu comentário