For my vocational afternoon I visited 3 hospitals here in Friburgo - one public and two private. The private hospitals were similar to in the UK but smaller than our DGH's. The public hospital was very different with less equipment, poorer facilities and environments. All hospitals had very dedicated and enthusiastic staff. The public hospital here relies on a purely paper based system whereas the private hospitals had greater use of computers, partly to ensure they collect the information required by the many insurance companies.

I was surprised by the duplication of services as each of the hospitals had an emergency dept and intensive care as well as other specialist facilities yet they are within just a few miles of each other. They are all owned by different entities so collaboration is not easy.

It seems that the primary care side of health is less developed here and many problems are not detected early enough and people end up being admitted to hospital when it may have been avoidable. It can also be faster to go to the emergency dept as in the UK which creates extra pressure on hospital resources.

My thanks to Filipe for showing me round and helping me to understand more about healthcare here in Brasil.