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Hoping for something new
Rev Assoc Med B ras 2016; 62(7):611 611
EDITORIAL
Hoping for something new
A esperança do novo
Florentino Cardoso1
1President of the Brazilian Medical Association
A new light was lit with the change of government. Will
this flame be kept burning, illuminating a better future?
We shall soon see. Things cannot continue as they are,
failing to meet the expectations of the vast majority of
Brazilians. Brazil’s script must be revised, especially with
better education and health care for our population.
We lived a time of “more” without any concern for
quality – more doctors, more specialists; these are examples
of the folly of a government drenched in corruption, which
led the country to bankruptcy. We need more doctors in
certain specialties and in some places because doctors are
heavily concentrated in capitals and larger cities. What
incentives do medical doctors have to work in places of
difficult access and provision? What are the working con-
ditions for them? The population, even the poor and needy,
has no doubt that health care in Brazil is chaotic.
Medical specialties were also threatened when the pre-
vious government sponsored the “more” program, with
zero quality, a lure to the people. They tried to “make spe-
cialists” out of those who undertook low-quality courses
approved by the Ministry of Education, in many cases with
reduced hours, taught through distance education and
without practical activities. These courses are traps designed
for people to waste money; they threaten proper medical
training and endanger health care. This cannot thrive, and
urgent measures need to be adopted by the new government.
Health care is bad, even in sectors of supplementary
health and education. The authorities continue to give their
approval for the opening of medical schools that do not
present the proper conditions to educate good doctors. It
is the race of deputies and senators “sponsoring” medical
schools in cities devoid of good health conditions, where
there is a lack of professionals in various specialties. They
say we stand for the training of medical experts. We do! The
unwary who say this are talking about something they do
not know; for example, they do not know that family and
community physicians are medical specialists. “One can
only recognize what one knows” is an always current saying.
And clinical research in Brazil crawls trailing other
countries that invest in research (United States, several
European countries, Japan, South Korea, and more). We
know that research leads to development, resources, and
opportunities for both researchers and the public. How
many Brazilians miss opportunities to participate in new
and better treatments for different health problems due
to the incompetence and sluggishness of our bureaucratic
CEP-Conep-Anvisa system? The National Health Surveil-
lance Agency (Anvisa) has shown signs of improvement
and we hope that it will help to “untie the knot,” so we can
create a new reality.
In this scenario (care, teaching, and research in health),
we can imagine the situation of health care management,
another mainstay of the area. Why continue to choose
managers who are committed to politics and elections at
the expense of merit, focus on goals, results and outcomes?
Why don’t we move further in the work grounded in strong
scientific evidence? When a patient needs treatment, we
should treat them at the right time, in the right place and
with the right professional. The invasion of other health
professionals who have not had adequate training to
perform certain activities is frightening, and puts people’s
lives at risk. How many deaths have occurred in esthetic
procedures performed by non-specialists?
Our uncompromising defense of merit, competence,
and the truth is intended to protect the population, because
we take care of our greatest asset: health. And in order to
have a better future, we must think beyond diagnosis and
treatment (do not care much for rehabilitation). Let us
work to improve early diagnosis, focusing on prevention,
on health promotion, and especially on health education,
which can truly change the sad current scenario for the
next generations. Too bad that such immeasurable politi-
cization only sees the short term (term of office and re-elec-
tion). We must see and work for Brazil’s future, planning
the next 5, 10, 20 years, that is, the new generations.
What should we expect from this new government?
Show its good intentions with structural and major course
changes, thinking about the people, not about a party or a
government. Enough!
We are ready to help without any political ideology,
seeking quality in our services. And if the high ranks do
not meet our expectations, let us pray for better choices
in the upcoming elections. Health is our greatest asset
and we deserve respect.