Bruno A. Melchiori
11/19/12
Argumentative essay
English 101

The Dire State of Brazilian Public Hospitals According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Brazil occupies the 72nd position in worldwide public health. The investments in hospitals in Brazil are so low when compared to countries such as Norway and Monaco. For example, Brazilian government invests only $ 517 per inhabitant per year to improve the public health. On the other hand, Norway and Monaco invest $6 thousand per inhabitant annually (WHO). Because of lack of investment in public health, Brazil has some issues with public hospitals and public insurance such as, lack of doctors and medical equipment, long waiting lines, and the neglect that private health insurance companies have with the population. In 2010 my grandfather had a heart attack caused by a clot on his arm. My grandfather almost died because he went to one of the public hospitals in Atibaia, Sao Paulo. When my grandfather arrived in the ambulance, he needed to wait for thirty minutes to get medical service because all the doctors were busy with other patients, and the hospital did not have enough medical equipment to take care of all the patients. My parents actually wanted to take him to a private hospital, but my grandfather did not have insurance for private hospitals. However, my grandfather was just one of the thousands of Brazilians that almost die waiting for a medical service. Brazilian public hospitals have a lot of problems because the government invests a little amount of money to improve the number of doctors and equipment in public hospitals. Also, the government does not provide a good health insurance for people who cannot afford to get insurance to go to private hospitals. The biggest challenge for the Brazilian government is that faces to those problems such as, lack of doctors and medical equipment, long waiting lines, and the neglect that private health insurance companies have with the population. This situation needs to change because a lot of patients are dying waiting for a medical service. I think this situation can change when our ministers and governors stop being corrupt and start to invest more money in public health.
The lack of doctors in public hospitals is due to the low wages that public hospitals are able to pay. Dr. Julio da Silva, who is employed at Sírio Libanês Hospital says, “Doctors who have a lot of experience prefer work at private hospitals because they can make money almost five times more than working for public hospitals so doctors can get enough rest and holidays.” Consequently, the Brazilian government made a law that all new doctors must start their careers in public hospitals to get experience and to help the country. This was one way that Brazilian governors and ministers thought that they could fix the problem of lack of doctors in public hospitals. But this solution was not good enough because these new doctors do not have any experience beyond the school. These new doctors actually create a new problem for public hospitals because they do not have enough experience so they make some serious mistakes sometimes. Because of these errors too many people die by medical mistakes. A 2009 story sheds light on this issue:
In 2009, it was published the case of a woman who lost the chance to receive a kidney because the hospital in Rio de Janeiro transplanted the organ to another woman, which similar name and that did not require the medical intervention. Maria das Graças de Jesus, 61, remains in the queue for a year and eight months. The other patient was called Maria das Graças de Jesus de Araujo and did not resist the procedure and died two months after the operation. The victim entered with a lawsuit for losses and damages and an inquest to Health Secretariat of the State of Rio blamed the central of transplant and the hospitals Bonsucesso and Fundão by the exchange of patient (Vanessa Teodoro).
This was one of the biggest mistakes in