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Cosmopolitan medicine, the ace up Argentina’s sleeve to fight COVID-19

They are immigrants in Argentina. Latin Americans from Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Colombia, add 200 health professionals who roll up their sleeves in the province of Buenos Aires to fill the vacancies opened by the Government and were rejected by 70% of Argentine applicants given the conditions offered in the framework of the pandemic.

Argentina has lived the worst 48 hours since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 14 there was a record 24 dead in one day, whereas on the eve the contagions reached the maximum of 316 in a single day.

70% of the 7,000 infected registered are concentrated in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), which includes the national capital, where quarantine began to relax, and the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, where 60% of the country’s poorest population lives. . 15 million people live in the AMBA as a whole, a third of the national population.

Anticipating the spike in infections, expected first in May and then run to June by the health authorities, the national and provincial governments opened a call to incorporate 500 doctors into the ranks of clinical centers and the 12 modular hospitals built, to those who offered them salaries of 65,000 pesos ($ 930) for 36 hours a week of work.

However, there was very low acceptance and 70% of the Argentine doctors who signed up ended up rejecting the proposal when they met the requirements. In response, the provincial health portfolio announced that it would accelerate the homologation of qualifying titles of 200 foreign professionals already installed in the country, mainly from Venezuela, but also from Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Colombia.

“Starting with the decree of sanitary emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic, many mayors and hospital directors began to call us to request doctors,” Indira Acosta, president of the Association of Venezuelan Doctors in Argentina (Asomevenar), an organization, told Sputnik. It has 1,630 members, of whom 753 have their titles already validated in the southern country and exercise as such.

The presidential decree, signed on March 12, exceptionally and temporarily authorizes the hiring and practice of health professionals and technicians with degrees abroad whose title is not revalidated in Argentina. In this situation are more than 870 Venezuelan doctors, who are still unable to practice due to having their credentials pending.

“They managed to insert 268 doctors throughout the country, some are already working and others are in the period of interview or delivery of documentation. The different medical colleges, depending on the jurisdiction, gave a provisional registration. All the doctors who are incorporating they have begun the process of homologation in the Ministry of Education, “said Acosta.

The president of Asomevenar assured that they have the support of some representatives of the national Congress and the Ministry of Health in the efforts to get the procedures to be accelerated in order to incorporate the human and professional capital of Venezuelan doctors. In the province of Buenos Aires, more than 50 have already been incorporated.

“We have to forget a little about political issues and xenophobia, as is happening in other countries, and focus on health. Doctors are doctors regardless of their nationality. Venezuelan universities are the best educators and we had many shortcomings in our country, which helps us work in these emergency contexts, “Acosta concluded.

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