More Doctors reaches 80% of cities with up to 52 thousand people
Data from the Ministry of Health show that the Mais Médicos, or More Doctors program, re-established in 2023, currently serves 80 percent of Brazil’s 3,900 municipalities with populations between 700 and 52 thousand, with an estimated total of 26.9 million covered. The figure represents 40.9 percent of the people in these municipalities.
This Friday (Oct. 18), when Brazil celebrates Doctors’ Day, Health Minister Nísia Trindade said “it is a great achievement to see the growth of this essential program for the [national health care system] SUS reaching the whole country. Mais Médicos is a reality and is making a difference. When we took office, it had 13 thousand professionals. By the end of this administration, we’ll have reached the target of 28 thousand.”
The most socially vulnerable municipalities have also seen progress in the program’s coverage—60 percent of the doctors are in these regions. In the Amazon, nine highly vulnerable municipalities now have doctors.
The program has also seen an expansion in indigenous health care. In December 2022, it had 224 active professionals; in September this year, the number leapt to 570.
Since last year, professionals in the area have been able to pursue specialization programs and master’s degrees through the National Strategy for the Training of Health Specialists, which integrates training, provision, and work-based education programs for SUS.
A novelty in the program’s 38th call for applications was the offer of affirmative vacancies for people with disabilities and specific ethnic-racial groups—such as black, quilombola, and indigenous people.
Last week, the Ministry of Health, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, held the program’s 3rd Reception and Evaluation Module for 2024. In attendance were 364 exchange doctors, all of them Brazilians trained abroad.
