Hey everyone!!! Day 3 in Argentina was a jam-packed day full of lots of learning, both about the healthcare system and about Argentina’s culture and city life. I woke up early and went to get breakfast around 8 am, and my breakfast consisted of cereal, coffee, and some other items such as toast/jam. I have enjoyed the hotel breakfast so far because they have so many options!
After breakfast, we hopped on the bus and headed to meet with the Deputy Minister of Health for the city of Buenos Aires! He talked a lot about managing the healthcare system and challenges facing that. Additionally, he talked about how COVID-19 was a facilitator of the adaptation of technology, which I thought was very interesting. This left me wondering how the pandemic had an effect on how the hospitals run. Lastly, the discussion about the gap in salary between nurses and physicians was very interesting. This caused a lot of organized labor strikes, which definitely impacts how the culture, specifically city life and traffic in Buenos Aires functions, and makes conflict management very challenging. Politically, the inflation is what exacerbated the gaps in salary between both nurses and physicians. Overall, the conversation was very interesting and made me have questions about the many aspects of the healthcare system. Below are some pictures from Dr. Ferrante’s lecture!!
After hearing from the Deputy Minister of Health, we went to meet with the head of the Obras Sociales, Dr. Luis Scervino. It was a very informative discussion about the many things that go into the Obras Sociales sector of Argentina’s Healthcare system. The Obras Sociales are a very complex and compartmentalized sector, having many categories ranging from national and provincial to the armed forces. Obras sociales only cover the public workers in the city, such as people from the field of education. This changes the culture of the labor in the city since only one category of employees gets covered by the Obras Sociales. The conversation about Obras Sociales definitely helped clear some confusion and I am curious if there is a deficit about the Obras Sociales that makes a large percentage of people choose to be covered by another sector as well, since 60% of the population is covered by both the public sector and obras sociales.
We then went to lunch and got pizza, which was very good! Afterwards, we hopped on a larger bus and went on a tour of 3 areas of Buenos Aires: La Boca, San Telmo, and Plaza de Mayo. At La Boca, I got a “Buenos Aires” magnet for my family and enjoyed walking around the colorful atmosphere of the area!! We got on the bus and went to San Telmo and went into a market area, where there were also many shopping opportunities! Lastly, we headed to Plaza de Mayo and it was so lively and pretty there. The pink house was projected with colorful lights, and we got to see the soldiers taking Argentina’s flag down for the day. I love taking pictures, so attached below are some of the whole experience, from the colorful atmosphere of La Boca to Plaza de Mayo at night!! Today was a long, but very fun day and I’ll be back to update tomorrow!!
