The Brazilian government officially launched on Monday (20) the new version of the Mais Médicos program – now formally called Mais Médicos para or Brasil. There will be 15,000 new vacancies for professionals trained in Medicine, which should increase the number of people hired by the program to 28,000 until the end of this year.
The contracts will be made mainly to meet the demand in places of extreme poverty. According to government estimates, more than 96 million people will be guaranteed primary health care, especially in the Basic Health Units, essential for disease prevention and harm reduction in serious situations.
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Launched in 2013 by the then president Dilma Rousseff (Workers Party), the program marked the history of health care in the country, with the expansion of the offer of professionals. However, the initiative has always been criticized by the opposition (which would later become the situation, with the arrival of Jair Bolsonaro to power). In recent years, the program has weakened. Bolsonaro even launched a supposed alternative, called “Doctors for Brazil”, but it never got off the ground.
“The Bolsonaro government’s proposal did not guarantee doctors where they were most needed. At the end of 2022, more than 4,000 family health teams were without doctors, in the worst scenario in ten years,” said Health Minister Nísia Trindade on Monday. , at the launch event of the program.
Brazilians as a priority
Brazilian doctors will have preference in the selection process, but foreign professionals with a Registry from the Ministry of Health (RMS) will also be able to participate in the selection processes. Economic incentives will be offered to professionals who remain at least 36 months in the same municipality. Physicians who have completed the FIES program will also receive a bonus for participating in the program.
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“Mais Médicos returns to respond to the challenge of guaranteeing the presence of doctors for Brazilians in the municipalities furthest from the big centers and the peripheries of the big cities, who suffer from a lack of access to such important care” said Nísia Trindade.
Only this year, the federal government will invest R$ 712 million (approx. 136 million dollars). The first public call for the new program will open in March, with 5,000 vacancies, while another 10,000 vacancies will be offered in the coming months, in collaboration between the federal government and local governments. The objective is to reduce the cost of contracting for municipalities.
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“Only the mayor who wants to hire a doctor in a city knows how much he misses a doctor, sometimes pays a higher salary than he could afford, and still can’t find a doctor who is willing to go to a small city in the interior, which does not have a shopping center or cinema,” said President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
The president also said that the first 100 days of government would serve to reveal the reality of the country, to discover “the degree of destruction to which the country has been subjected in the last six years.” This Monday, the day of the relaunch of Mais Médicos, marks the 80th day of the mandate.
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“In these 80 days of government, we have done nothing but try to recover everything that had been done well, that had worked, and it was destroyed. It is as if you returned from vacation and there was an earthquake in your house,” he compared.
“Health is back. Mais Médicos is back. And they’re back to stay”
The federal government launched this Monday (20) the new More Doctors – now called More Doctors for Brazil. Hiring will be mainly in places of extreme poverty.#BrasildeFato 📲 https://t.co/PveGefstgY pic.twitter.com/5IlYQ5fTX6
— Brasil de Fato (@brasildefato) March 20, 2023
Tweet: “Lula: ‘”Health has returned. The Mais Médicos is back. And they are back to stay.”‘ The federal government launched on Monday (20) the new Mais Médicos – now called Mais Médicos para or Brasil. The recruitment will be mainly in places of extreme poverty.”
training opportunity
Always with the aim of reducing the turnover of professionals, the new Mais Médicos will offer training opportunities, such as the possibility of taking a specialization master’s degree. According to the Ministry of Health, which will collaborate with the Ministry of Education in this area, more than 40% of the participants leave the program to seek training and education.
“Today there is consolidated evidence that the program has managed to provide professionals to the most vulnerable areas, expand access to family health, reduce hospital admissions and infant mortality. That is why it is back,” said the Minister of Health.
Editing: Flavia Chacon
