Brazil's More Doctors Program recruits another 1.5 thousand health workers

Approximately 1.5 thousand medics—a group formed by Cuban nationals and Brazilians holding a foreign diploma—are to work in Brazil's More Doctors Program (Mais Médicos in the original Portuguese), the Health Ministry announced today (Jul. 22), adding that most professionals in this stage are doctors from Cuba.

Of this total, some 600 workers have started the welcoming phase and are doing paperwork before they can be sent to the municipalities to do their job. Three hundred of the 1.2 thousand Cuban doctors have entered the country.

Welcoming stage

Doctors holding a diploma issued overseas go through a 3-week welcoming period, during which they are taught about Brazil's public health care system, known as SUS, with a focus on basic care, common diseases in Brazil, as well as ethical and legal topics in medical practice. Medics must pass evaluation tests during this stage to be allowed to work in the program.

The government expects the first group of doctors, made up of 305 workers, to arrive in the 226 municipalities and an indigenous district on August 8. An extra welcoming week is observed at their specific location before their regular activities are slated to begin, at the basic health care units, on August 15.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira