Today, we had the opportunity to visit two public hospitals. The first hospital we visited was on the riverside of Tigre, and we traveled throughout it by boat, which was an amazing experience. We learned how the hospital serves the whole community, covering 200 km of the Tigre. We got to meet and learn from the captain of the ambulance boat, and meet the rest of the staff at the hospital. After we finished at the first hospital, we traveled to San Isidro to visit a public hospital within the city. Here, we were able to experience the true feel of the hospital, see the ICU, and meet the nurses working there.

During the experience today, we learned about the disconnect in the relationship between primary care and public hospitals. The two public hospitals we visited today, especially the one in Tigre, highlighted how much local residents rely on hospitals for all types of care, even for conditions that would typically be handled by primary care providers. The strong dependence on public hospitals for typical primary care services is due to the lack of trust and funding for primary care centers in Argentina. As a result, hospitals can quickly become overcrowded, leading to them becoming less accessible for people who are truly in need of urgent care. Additionally, with the unstable economy, people are constantly switching between private and public care, bringing even more people into the public hospitals.

It is an extremely difficult issue to target because funding this sector of healthcare takes lots of funding and may threaten not only hospital revenue, but government revenue, setting back development. There needs to be a balance between the two systems to increase the accessibility of care for those truly in need and to strengthen the options available for people who need reliable, everyday health services.