14.462
doctors participate in the social program "More Doctors"
(Mas Medicos) of which 11.400 are Cubans, in Brazil. During the first
year, the program offered medical services to 51 million citizens.
The program
started in July, 2013, by the Prime Minister of Brazil, Dilma
Rousseff, with a main goal to increase the number of professional
doctors who can provide health services to the population.
Doctors
participating in this program are distributed geographically in 3.819
municipalities of the country and 34 indigenous regions. 75% of the
doctors provide their services in high social sensitivity zones in
the north-east part of the country and the suburbs of the big cities.
Secretary of
Labor Management and Health Education in Brazil, Eider Pinto, stated
that the increase in primary care consultations by 35% had a positive
impact on reducing the rates of infant, diabetic and hypertensive
mortality, as well as, a reduction in the corresponding services by
20% in country's hospitals.
According to
Pinto, people know that they have a doctor close to their homes and
this creates a serious social impact. However, he pointed that there
is a need for improvement of the medical services, especially in
reducing the time waiting of a medical examination.
Source:
Comment:
This is a
great example of true cooperation between countries in a purely
humanitarian field rather than cooperation as usual, e.g., economy,
defence, energy, etc. However, what's puzzling here, is the quite
large number of Cuban doctors, reaching roughly 79% of the total
number of doctors participating in this program. Is this a sign of
serious shortage of medical staff in Brazil?
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