Essential health services in the country are at risk of collapse, says transition team

The final report of the Transition Cabinet, released this Thursday (22), points to setbacks in the health area, including the loss of almost BRL 60 billion attributed to the spending ceiling, and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The risk of collapse of essential services is very high due to lack of federal funding and commitment to the purchase of essential inputs, including vaccines and medicines in general”, says the document.

Sought, the Ministry of Health was contacted for comment on the report, but did not comment.

The text points out that, since 2016, there has been a generalized worsening in the vaccination coverage rate, with a high risk of reintroduction of diseases such as polio; drop in the number of consultations, surgeries, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed by the SUS (Unified Health System); return of hospitalizations due to child malnutrition caused by hunger; stagnation in the downward trajectory of infant mortality; and increased maternal mortality.

“The serious Brazilian health situation stems from a set of institutional, budgetary and regulatory setbacks that led to the dismantling of health policies and that affected the functioning of various areas of the SUS”, criticizes the document.

The report highlights the breakdown of initiatives such as the PNI (National Immunization Program), Mais Médicos, Popular Pharmacy and the National Policy for Comprehensive Health of the Black Population.

With this scenario, the transition team says that it is urgent to recover the area’s budget, establish measures to rescue the health authority and the ministry’s capacity to coordinate the SUS.

It also indicates as priorities the reduction in queues for diagnoses and treatments; the recovery of the areas of mental health, women, children and adolescents, and the indigenous population, as well as the adoption of an anti-racist guideline in the national health policy.

Other necessary actions, says the text, are the recovery of the Popular Pharmacy, the stimulus to the development of the Economic and Industrial Health Complex and the digital transformation of the SUS.

The report also states that it is urgent to verify the conditions of support, inputs and contracts in general, “seriously compromised under the Bolsonaro government”, and to rescue spaces for social participation, such as national health conferences.