The 'Mais Médicos' ('More Doctors') Program in focus
Launched by the Brazilian federal government in order to improve the quality of 'SUS - Sistema Único de Saúde' (local public health service), the 'Mais Médicos' ('More Doctors') Program has been complimented and criticised since its announcement in July. The main reason for the controversy is the importation of doctors to occupy part of the 10,000 jobs created in areas of the country where there is a shortage of professionals, such as the North and Northeast, the peripheries of large cities and municipalities of the countryside. Critics complain about the exemption from the 'Revalida' (national exam for revalidation of foreign diplomas) for the candidates and argue that the problem of public health in Brazil is not the number of doctors, but the deficiency of infrastructure.
To broaden and deepen discussions on the program, IEA's Laboratory of Contemporary Societies will promote the debate 'Mais Médicos' on September 4, at 10 am. At the meeting, the topic will be approached from three questions: 1) Does Brazil need more doctors? 2) Why do Brazilian doctors not go to the countryside and the peripheries? 3) To meet an emergency, is it worth hiring foreign doctors?
The participants of the debate will be Adib Jatene, CEO of the 'HCOR - Hospital do Coração' ('Heart Hospital'), former director and retired professor of USP's Faculty of Medicine, former Minister of Health and former Secretary of Health of the State of São Paulo; Claudia Colucci, special reporter and columnist in healthcare for Folha de São Paulo; Fernando de Castro Reinach, partner of 'Fundo Pitanga' and former professor at USP; Mário César Scheffer, Professor of the Department of Preventive Medicine at USP and member of the Advisory Board of the Brazilian Center of Health Studies; and Paulo Hilário Saldiva, Professor of the Department of Pathology at USP.
Coordinated and mediated by Milton de Arruda Martins, Professor of the Department of Clinical Medicine at USP, the meeting will also address the possibility of creating a new study group at the IEA and conducting a series of debates, both facing the analysis of health in Brazil.
The event will be broadcast live from IEA's Event Room at www.iea.usp.br/aovivo.