Day 4 in Argentina! This morning the bus never showed up so we got a little extra time at the hotel breakfast. We all ended up taking Ubers to Sanatorio de los Arcos to talk with Dra. Josefina Medrano. She is a Province Ministry of Health and past Minister of Health (MOH) for the Providence of Salta during the COVID-19 pandemic. She discussed the challenges of being the MOH of a rural providence in Argentina, how the funding works, how they responded to COVID, and the different types of hospitals and ambulatory clinics in Salta. We then bused to the Hospital Juan A. Fernandez, the biggest public hospital in Buenos Aires, and possibly the biggest in the entire country. We talked to the Hospital Director, Dr. Ignacio Previgliano. We got the entire rundown of the public hospital, including the history of the hospital, the objectives they have, their resources, their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all of their past successes and achievements, and their goals for the future. We then went on a tour of the hospital through the ICU, ER, trauma center, and what looked to be the neonatal ICU. It was interesting to see people at their most vulnerable moments but it was good to see and learn. We then went back to IES to eat a salad lunch with the group. We had a quick turnaround time before we went on a 2 hour walking tour of Recoleta. We learned a lot of history about the neighborhood but the highlight was seeing the Cementerio de la Recoleta. This is one of the world’s most visited cemeteries for its eye catching mausoleums and famous inhabitants, like Eva Perón. I then walked back to the hotel with a group and we finished the night by going to a McDonald’s in the city. And if you couldn’t tell from my title, it was pretty good 🙂
Federalism is defined as a combined and compound mode of government that combines a general government with regional governments in a single political system, dividing the powers between the two. Federalism is very important in health care delivery and planning. Dra. Josefina Medrano talked about the MOH and how this relates to federalism. For example, the national government and provincial government both give funding to the public hospitals in Salta. The weigh of the two is supposedly equal on one location, but sometimes one contributes more than the other. If I understood correctly, the national government is required to give a certain amount of money to each province. However, within the province they decide how much money to contribute to their hospitals based on the MOH and the provinces’ individual needs. This system and idea of federalism is quite confusing but we are learning day by day.
Today was another fun day and it was really nice to see the workings of one of Argentina’s biggest and most famous public hospitals. I am looking forward to what tomorrow brings 🙂
