Today we started the day by driving to the La Matanza municipality to see the public hospital funded only by provincial funds called the Paroissien. This municipality is in the Buenos Aires province just like San Isidro however is only funded by provincial funds and not municipal and provincial like San Isidro. This causes differences in the quality of healthcare due to lack of funding in certain areas. The Paroissien hospital was very chaotic when we toured and gets extremely busy in the mornings. Because of lack of funding, the primary care centers are included in the hospital via in and in and out patient services. This was different compared to the other provinces that have primary care centers as well as specialized hospitals. Austral and San Isidro in particular, I really focused on weaning the hospitals off of primary care and having the hospitals only for the more complex care. Whereas in this municipality, the need for primary care centers are there so they combine it into the hospital. This is part of the reason that we saw the chaos in the hospital as well as the lesser conditions. Then toured through all the facilities from inpatient to outpatient services. Examples of services they offered were obstetricians, gynecology, dermatology, and of course the more complex care things that you would find in a traditional hospital. It was a very unique experience because the building was very dark and dated. They did have new x-ray equipment, blood research equipment and we’re working on an expansion. However, those things were definitely extremely needed. We also went to Universidad de la Matanza which is the local college for that municipality. This was different from the private Austral University in the Pilar municipality in terms of composure of the students, quality of the campus, and of the classrooms. However, they did say that La Matanza graduates are favored highly in the private healthcare industry just like the Austral graduates.
This experience touring this provincially funded public hospital was very different than the other hospitals and primary care centers we have visited previously. In the past week, all the other public hospitals and primary care centers we have visited were provincially and municipally funded. You could tell that this hospital was only receiving the provincial money which was alluded to being very hard to expand the budget when needed. Also in terms of education, from what I gathered the education seems to be comparable. The major differences I saw between both colleges were mainly the quality of the campus in terms of modernity and everyday luxury. I also noticed some difference in the students’ composure and personalities, but they were all very nice and friendly.
