Brazil's 'broken' healthcare system

 05-Feb-16, Aljazeera

Beside the elevators were four patients on hospital gurneys. Down the corridor were three more. And tucked away beside a fire hose were two others. The doctors were doing their rounds not in the wards but in the public areas of the hospital.

Image: Priscilla Moraes / Al Jazeera

And this was the calm after the storm. The Getulio Vargas state hospital in Rio de Janeiro was admitting patients again after an unprecedented funding crisis had forced doctors to board up the entrance in December.

"I've never seen anything like it," one pediatric and neonatal doctor said. "The health system is practically broke."

The public health system run by Rio's state government reached breaking point at the end of last year after authorities admitted to a budget shortfall, which was blamed on the drop in oil revenue.

Rio's doctors' union, SinMed, and the state's Regional Medical Council (CREMERJ), also suggested that public funds had been misused. Jorge Darze, the SinMed and CREMERJ president, said it was "unacceptable" to blame a fall in oil royalties as a result of the oil crash.

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