The Buenos Aires health care system has cracks for various reasons, but
the overflow is registered in Greater Buenos Aires
.
This region, which concentrates almost
10 million inhabitants,
is assisted by the health structure offered by 33 public hospitals and 15 prompt care units (UPA).
Of that universe,
only 30% have social coverage
, therefore almost seven million men, women and children have free public health care as the only alternative for medium and high complexity medical care.
It is a scheme that is strangled and overflows into the guards and outpatient clinics.
For this reason, for years the
transfer of patients from the Province of Buenos Aires to the City's care centers
has been a constant.
Sometimes, as with the dissemination of a video that went viral of a doctor at Argerich Hospital, the situation takes on the format of a political confrontation.
But that transit was always there.
“For those of us who work in the City's public health system, what we saw now is nothing new.
For example, in Gutiérrez de CABA, statistics show that
of every 10 patients who are generally treated on call, only 2 live in the Capital
.
The rest are from the province of Buenos Aires or other jurisdictions,”
a surgeon who also works in establishments in the Province told
Clarín .
The professional completed her shift this Monday.
He revealed a piece of information that is not statistical, it is from one day and serves as a sample: “I have been seeing 8 patients on duty in consultation:
seven from the Conurbano and one from the Dominican Republic
.
They sent two of them from a hospital in Moreno to come by their own means,” the doctor concluded.
Video
The CABA guards are saturated and patients wait hours to be treated.
“The guards are overwhelmed in almost all hospitals.
Due to the impact of the economic crisis and because we have new patients who had to
disaffiliate from social or prepaid insurance
.
However, cases classified as 'red' or 'yellow', due to the degree of urgency, are treated or referred in less than an hour,"
the director of a service at the San Martín de La Plata Hospital explained to
Clarín .
It is one of the most important reference institutes in the Province.
These delays lead to violent situations.
A quick review allows us to detect three cases in one year.
Last November, a man got out of control in the guardroom of the Dr. Eduardo Oller Hospital, in San Francisco Solano.
The complaint was because they did not care for his wife because he was not feeling well.
Angry, he attacked a doctor and a security woman and broke objects: he ended up arrested.
Six months ago, a head of guard at the Sor María Ludovica Children's Hospital, in La Plata, was attacked by the mother of a patient.
Due to the attack, the pediatrician had injuries to her head and arms.
In January 2022, in the guard of the Dr. Diego E. Thompson Municipal Hospital in San Martín, the relatives of a patient began to attack the doctors for the delay in care.
Video
A nurse came out with a knife to defend him.
But internships or consultations may take even longer.
At San Martín they recognized that you have to
wait up to four months for an endoscopy
,
an MRI or a dermatological consultation
.
There are patients who go at dawn to look for a place for care.
And they achieve it, although in the long term.
“The drama is in the outpatient clinics
,” acknowledged the specialist.
Four months ago, the Ministry of Health enabled a device to obtain appointments online, for the network of hospitals and provincial assistance centers.
In a simulation carried out this Tuesday, two hospitals in La Matanza (the “Paroisien”, by Isidro Casanova and the “Simply Evita”, by González Catán) were not available to care for patients requiring a consultation in the “medical clinic” category.
The “Evita Pueblo” of Berazategui also did not have dates in the system.
The “Gandulfo” of Lomas de Zamora allowed a clinic to be seen on April 3 (in two months).
For neonatology, the only one enabled was the Junín hospital.
But I didn't have any appointments available either.
The provincial centers “Mariano y Luciano de la Vega” (Moreno) and the “Luis Guemes” of Haedo (Morón) also did not enable offices in the coming months for medical clinic care.
The “Héroes de Malvinas” of Merlo opened a window for March 18 and the “Isidro Iriarte” of Quilmes for the 21st.
The shift platform
does not include the six hospitals that the government inaugurated in the last three years
.
This Tuesday the Minister of Health, Nicolás Kreplak, mentioned them to respond to the announcement by the head of the Buenos Aires government, Jorge Macri, to prioritize the care of the city's inhabitants in the health centers of CABA.
Six months ago, a head of guard at the Sor María Ludovica Children's Hospital, in La Plata, was attacked by the mother of a patient.
Photo Archive / Federico Imas
“In the last four years we added 6 new high-complexity hospitals, 156 primary care centers and more than 300 ambulances that serve and care for all the people who require it,” the provincial official distinguished himself.
The centers were enabled in La Matanza (two);
Cañuelas, Monte Grande, and Pilar (two).
Two of them are named after former president Néstor Kirchner, one after surgeon René Favaloro.
Not all of them have the installed capacity in operation, according to the ministry's official website.
The
lack of human resources
also restricts the operations of hospitals.
The lack of professionals in specialties such as pediatrics, clinical, intensive care or neonatology exceeds the border of Buenos Aires.
But it hits home.
Six months ago there was a conflict at the “Sor María Ludovica” Children's Hospital due to the lack of coverage for almost half of the positions.
It also included the guards.
The Province improved the salary and conditions of on-call doctors, but has not been able to rebuild the staff.
“There is a lot of
salary difference with the doctors from CABA
or those from Garrahan.
We have made progress, after last year's protests things improved.
But there is still a long way to go,” Zulma Fernández, former president of the Association of Professionals at the Children's Hospital,
told
Clarín .
The worker also admitted that
supplies are still missing
.
“They arrive in dribs and drabs.
We have to evaluate that day by day,” Fernández explained.
Axel Kicillof's government maintains that works were carried out in 87 hospitals and the number of intensive care beds tripled.
Also, they acquired highly complex equipment and the workforce was expanded by 30 thousand agents (professional and non-professional).
In the entire public network there are more than 2,800 intensive care (ICU) beds.
In the Covid pandemic, UTIs increased by 175%.
Later, there were problems in filling the positions of that specialty, as stated at the time by the Interhospital Commission of the province (Cicop).
The Silver. Correspondence
MG