Today was an eventful day as we had two hospital visits in contrasting healthcare sectors. We started the day early in the morning and took a 5 min walk to Universidad Austral. We received a lecture from Dra Josephina Medrano, the past Minister of Health of Salta. Salta is one of the poorest provinces in Argentina with high infant mortality rates. She discussed her role during Covid-19 and the difficulties she had to encounter during the time. She revealed that they lacked resources including having limited access to oxygen and beds. In response to these pressures, they had to be creative and showed how a doctor invented the soapy gloves. In addition to the limited resources, they also faced financing issues to provide patients with adequate care. Another conflict she discussed was the competition for power especially in gender roles and how it impacted her career.

After Dra Medrano’s lecture, we headed to Fernandez Public Hospital where we were given another lecture by the medical director. The hospital is one of the best public hospitals located in the city of Buenos Aires. He discussed that they gave such quality healthcare that even individuals who had private insurance would receive care occasionally. He discussed their difficulty in negotiating a higher budget to expand their accessibility to resources. The amount they received was fixed and provided by the Buenos Aires administration. After the informational lecture, the medical director gave us a tour of the facilities. One specific unit we toured was the kidney dialysis room. When touring the hospital, I noticed how crowded the hospitals seemed and the confined spaces patients received care in.

The private hospital of Los Arcos was toured afterwards. We received another lecture from the medical director, Dr. Jorge Lantos. He discussed the functionality of the private sector and some issues they faced. Some objectives of the hospital he mentioned included improving population healthcare, reducing cost of care, enhancing patient experience, and improving provider satisfaction. He also mentioned how they provided very luxurious rooms for their patients that they wanted to stay rather than return to their home. Under Milei’s presidency, this sector underwent drastic changes as they were implored to lower prices and give back payments. This contrasts to the previous government as premiums were simply not allowed to rise and were kept constant. The occupation rates of the hospital are extremely high with over 250 patients daily and over 300 deliveries montly. After the brief lecture, we toured the hospital and it was evident how vastly different it was from the public hospital. These hospitals were more organized, nicer, and less populated.

It was very interesting to notice the differences between public and private hospitals. It was a good day for hospital visits and I cannot wait to visit other hospitals in different provinces in the upcoming days.