Thousands of patients are waiting for elective surgeries by the SUS in Brazil
The Covid pandemic has exacerbated a historic health problem in Brazil: the waiting list for surgeries.
Independent Deise Lima de Almeida ended up in a wheelchair after suffering a knee injury. For more than a year she has been waiting to undergo an operation by the SUS, which the doctor says is urgent.
“He said that the delay would be a limitation because my knee had healed incorrectly,” says Deise.
The wait for farmer Charles Jardel Brock da Silva began in 2019. He needs a hip prosthesis. At the age of 32, he stopped working on the farm due to pain and limited mobility.
“They call me for advice, but only advice. There’s nothing to be done,” says the farmer.
91,000 people await SUS operations in Rio Grande do Sul. The queue for the first appointment with specialists is even bigger: it reaches 309 thousand. The state will invest R$50 million to try to reduce patient waiting time. A cooperation agreement with the Court has also freed up R$94 million for surgeries, consultations and examinations for people living with cancer.
“We have signed a contract, the hospitals have started performing the procedures and we already have some positive results,” said RS Minister of Health Arita Bergmann.
Consequences of the Covid pandemic
This long wait is the result of what hospitals have experienced over the past three years. Elective surgeries have been postponed for several periods as medical teams’ attention has been focused solely on patients with Covid. Nowadays the range of procedures is too small for the size of the demand.
In Paraná, 200,000 people are waiting for elective surgeries. To relieve this pentup demand, the Ministry of Health has launched a program to transfer R$600 million. States must create a care priority plan to receive the money.
There is hope for housewife Raquel dos Santos Ferreira from Tocantins, who has been waiting for the removal of two hernias for three years.
“I just don’t mind if I don’t do anything, but since I have three kids to raise, I have to do my housekeeping stuff, so it hurts all the time,” says Raquel.
The area of orthopedics is most in demand in Goiás. More than 6,700 people are awaiting procedures. With a curvature of the spine, 10yearold Sofya was recommended surgery in July last year. The mother hopes that the snake is now moving forward.
“It’s very difficult for me to see her in this situation, to feel pain, not to sleep at night, to be disabled at school because she can’t even write anymore that it hurts. She sits all the time, even on an adapted chair,” explains her mother, Sylvana Veiga.