Medicine in Brazil
On the bottom floor of our block of flats is a doctor's surgery, which seems to be open nearly all the time and always has people in it. This has caused me to wonder what the state of medical practice is in Brazil these days.

I have always been aware that as in England, there is private and public practice here in Brazil. Years ago, public practice (i.e. equivalent to the NHS) left a lot to be desired and in those days I was well aware that many people in Brazil were not getting the medical care that they needed. According to what I have read, this has improved greatly in recent years although public health care is better in the south of Brazil than in the north of Brazil.

I haven't been to the doctor while we have been here, so don't know from first hand what the medical care is like, but when we lived here 30 years ago, I was very impressed by the private health care. In those days, if you could pay (and it wasn't excessive), then you received very good medical care from a specialist, according to the nature of your ailment. My understanding is that this has not changed and it is still possible to receive very good medical care here, if you can pay, and if you can't, much better medical care now than used to be the case.

The disparity between the medical care that the rich and the poor receive remains, but given the size of Brazil, it must be incredibly difficult to organise medical care for the whole country. When we were in Pantanal, there were airstrips on the cattle ranches which were used not only for supplies etc., but also for emergency medical care. I should imagine that Brazil is a very difficult but interesting country in which to practice medicine.