For our second day in Argentina, we woke up early to get on our way to our first two site visits. We enjoyed our first hotel breakfast, then set out for Centro De Salud Tomás Reggio, a public, nonprofit health center. At this clinic people can receive preventative care and primary services such as vaccinations, and checkups with specialists including a dentist. Since this center is nonprofit, they rely on support from the community, the Pilar municipality, and the private sector. Almost all workers including doctors and nurses are volunteers. The center’s goal is to provide free health care for the community. Patients are able to make appointments and receive medication and treatments for free. Although this service is free, other aspects like the low income community impacts how healthcare is delivered in the area. After touring the clinic we took a walk over to the neighboring Santa Marta Children’s Home, ran by the same sisters at the clinic. We were able to meet and spend some time with the kids at the daycare. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to see some of the work these volunteers do daily.
Next we visited Hospital Universitario Austral. This is a private university hospital offering a variety of inpatient and outpatient services. The hospital is funded by a mix of patient fees, donations and health insurance plans. Austral hospital is more expensive for patients and caters towards the buyers of their own personal insurance. Unlike the health center, Austral hospital is exceedingly bigger and located in a much wealthier area. This hospital makes preventative care far more consistent for the community. Additionally, with higher income, Austral has access to better medical equipment and more trained healthcare professionals. While we are at the hospital, we took a tour with two nurses. The nurses showed us the pediatric inpatient and outpatient facilities and a patient room on the oncology floor. It was interesting to see how the hospitals in the US differ from this one. I’m interested to see how the downtown Austral compares to the university campus.
