Amazonas expands the offer of consultations and exams in the state health network

Victória Sales and Marcela Leiros – from Cenarium

MANAUS – The offer of consultations and exams in the Amazonas public health network will increase by 98,461 procedures, according to an announcement made on Friday morning, 24, by the Amazonas governor, Wilson Lima (PSC). The Consult+ and Exam+, which are part of the Amazon Health Program, will expand this offer and were detailed in a press conference at the Hospital and Emergency Room (HPS) Delphina Aziz, in the north of Manaus.

The projects start with the offer of 86,471 exams and therapeutic services, besides 11,990 more consultations only, for now, at Delphina Aziz Hospital. The scheduling will happen via the Unified Central Regulation and Scheduling of Consultations and Exams (CURA) and the head of the state executive pledged, during the event, to reduce the population’s waiting time for the procedures.

“This structure [of the hospital] has 11 surgical centers that have been stopped since 2015, when it began operating. Taking into consideration that the Delphina Aziz hospital is a reference in Brazil, the satisfaction of those who are assisted here is above 90%. When I took over, there were only two floors working out of the six that should work, with only 10 ICU beds. Today there are 132 active ICU beds and, as of January 1st, the guarantee that citizens will not wait more than 30 days for a procedure”, confirmed Wilson Lima.

“The goal is to expand access to consultations and examinations and make the waiting time very short and I promise everyone that, by determination of the governor and commitment of my entire team, we will manage to reduce this time to a normal time of 15 to 30 days for you to wait to do this exam”, also pointed out the state secretary of Health Anoar Samad.

The Examina+ project is already providing, only at Delphina Aziz Hospital, 3,320 physiotherapy sessions. The Consultation + will offer, from the beginning of October, also in Delphina Aziz, 11,990 consultations per month, helping to relieve the state’s outpatient network. In addition to 8,370 consultations per month in 15 medical specialties, 3,620 consultations will be offered in outpatient surgery.

The consultations are in the areas of cardiology, dermatology, adult and child endocrinology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, nephrology, adult and child neurology, otolaryngology, adult and pediatric pulmonology, urology, and nutrition.

Elective surgeries

According to the State Department of Health (SES-AM), the expansion of procedures will be gradual, starting now with the opening of Delphina Aziz Hospital to the network and will continue expanding, with the ongoing contracting of new services. The Government of Amazonas is also preparing the launching of a project to expand the offer of elective surgeries in the State, the Opera+, which should use the installed capacity of Delphina Aziz, with 11 operating rooms working to perform 1,265 elective surgeries per month.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led the health system throughout Brazil to suspend outpatient procedures, such as consultations and exams, and elective – non-urgent – surgeries, following protocols and recommendations from the Ministry of Health (MH).