The visits to Hospital Interzonal General de Agudos Paroissien and Universidad Nacional de La Matanza allowed me to see the social and economic inequality among municipalities in Buenos Aires and those in its rural surroundings. Paroissien is a provincial hospital serving almost 3 million people. However, Paroissien gets much less money from the government than San Isidro, a municipality with greater financial means. This results in less money for upkeep, renovations and updates for the hospital. I saw the effects of inadequate funding at Paroissien, where flooding damage to rooms, exposed wiring, crowded rooms where there were many beds are prevalent, which further emphasized the challenges faced by both patients and hospital staff. They have constructed a brand new Emergency Room and are constructing a bigger ICU but there is still a huge gap between what Paroissien has available and what other hospitals provide.
Paroissien only employs approximately 1500 employees, and it has difficulty keeping them, since many health care workers prefer to work at private hospitals where they can make a better salary. In fact, some of Paroissien’s nurses even have to do administrative jobs in addition to caring for patients due to the severe shortage of nurses. Even though Paroissien faces so many difficulties, it is one of the busiest hospitals in the area since so many residents cannot pay for private medical care. At the University we visited, we spoke to nursing students about their educational process and clinical experience. It was fascinating learning that not all registered nurses have to pass the NCLEX, and that in Argentina a nurse must earn a BS degree in nursing over a period of 5 years. Overall, my visit demonstrated that the Buenos Aires region is tightly interconnected socially and economically. My visit also clearly illustrated that great disparities in healthcare, education, and funding for public services occur between wealthy municipalities and poor municipalities.