More Doctors Program: 715 graduates from abroad have chosen cities.
Doctors with foreign diplomas were allocated to 268 cities. The majority chose to work in municipalities in the South region (204), followed by the Southeast (162). The Northeast is expected to receive 153 of these doctors, the North 137, and the Central-West 59; in the South, Dilma reiterated her support for the program.
Yara Aquino
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia – A total of 715 doctors trained abroad have indicated municipalities to participate in the Mais Médicos Program. Of these, 194 are Brazilians who graduated outside the country and 521 are foreigners. The professionals have until Monday (12) to confirm their participation in the program.
Doctors with foreign diplomas were allocated to 268 cities. The majority chose to work in municipalities in the South Region (204), followed by the Southeast (162). The Northeast is expected to receive 153 of these doctors, the North, 137, and the Central-West, 59. Doctors with foreign diplomas will work in the Unified Health System (SUS), in primary care, in the outskirts of large cities and in the interior of the country.
Another 367 Brazilians have again indicated their preferred municipalities for work, in a second opportunity given to this group with priority for the positions. They also have until the 12th to confirm their participation.
According to the Ministry of Health, doctors with foreign diplomas who confirm their participation in the program can contact the embassies to request a visa starting August 13th.
Professionals with foreign diplomas who work in the Mais Médicos program do not need to undergo the Revalidation of Medical Diplomas Issued by Higher Education Institutions (Revalida) and will work for three years. They can only work within the Mais Médicos program and in the region for which they were selected. The doctors will be supervised by a university during their participation in the program and receive a stipend of R$ 10.
Professionals trained in Brazil and those with diplomas validated in the country will have priority for the positions. Vacancies not filled by them will be filled by Brazilian doctors who graduated abroad and, subsequently, by foreign doctors.
Read also the report from Agência Brasil about President Dilma's remarks regarding the program:
Dilma again defends the More Doctors Program.
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia – Health problems in Brazil cannot be attributed solely to a lack of doctors, but this is one of the most serious problems, President Dilma Rousseff said today (10) in Porto Alegre during the delivery of backhoe loaders to mayors of cities in Rio Grande do Sul.
In defending the More Doctors Program, Dilma Rousseff assessed the state of healthcare in the country. She pointed out that Brazil has a coverage of 1,8 doctors per thousand inhabitants, much lower than Argentina's 3,2 and Uruguay's 3,7 doctors per thousand inhabitants. "We have a problem with access to doctors, which is why the federal government decided to implement the More Doctors Program, in line with the requests of the mayors," the president explained.
She acknowledged the shortage of doctors in various specialties, such as pediatrics, and the poor distribution of beds in the Unified Health System (SUS). According to Dilma, 700 municipalities have no doctors at all, and 1,9 have fewer than one doctor per 3 inhabitants. "There is a concentration of doctors in the urban areas of the capital cities. There are no doctors in the outskirts of large Brazilian cities, there are not doctors in the same proportion in the interior, in the North, in the Northeast, and in some regions of the country, there are no doctors," she said.
In addition to increasing the number of doctors, the president guaranteed that the government will invest in academic training as well as in the expansion and renovation of health facilities. "We need emergency actions and structural actions. The structural action will be our commitment to increasing the training of Brazilian doctors in the country; we will increase undergraduate places by 11 and residency places by 12," she added.
The government currently has R$ 7,4 billion in healthcare spending, and therefore, in Dilma's assessment, it "makes no sense" for municipalities to bear the costs of doctors. Regarding the controversial hiring of foreign doctors, the president recalled that in England, 37% of professionals are trained in other countries. She stressed that priority will be given to Brazilian professionals. "We don't want to jeopardize the jobs of doctors trained in Brazil, but if no doctors come forward to fill this role, we will fill the vacancies with professionals brought from abroad."
Regarding the foreign doctors, Dilma reminded everyone that, in addition to working under the supervision of Brazilian public universities and municipal and state health departments, they will be authorized to practice medicine exclusively in primary care. "Therefore, these doctors do not perform surgery, nor do they attend to specialties."
To attract professionals, the president explained that the federal government will offer a salary of R$ 10 to doctors who register to work in municipalities with vacancies. In hard-to-reach locations, the amount reaches R$ 20, and in the Amazon region, R$ 30.
According to Dilma, registrations for the Mais Médicos Program will be reopened permanently and will prioritize work in the outskirts of large cities, hard-to-reach locations, the interior of the country, and the North and Northeast regions.