Government announces hiring of Doctors for Brazil program

The federal government announced this Monday (18) the arrival of the first professionals hired for the Doctors in Brazil program, replacement for the Mais Médicos program, launched more than two years ago. The announcement took place during a ceremony at Palácio do Planalto, in Brasília, with the presence of President Jair Bolsonaro, ministers and parliamentarians.

In this first stage, 529 professionals were called, including doctors and tutors. They will be distributed to 24 states (see box). In all, by the end of April, about 1,700 professionals will be summoned. The other calls will take place during the entire period of validity of the public notice, the majority throughout 2022. The results of the contest were approved on April 5th.

“Of the total number of municipalities that will receive these professionals, about 6% will be covered by federal medical provision for the first time. They were not covered by Mais Médicos”, informed the secretary of primary health care, Raphael Câmara. “The program’s professionals are all doctors, with a diploma issued by Brazilian educational institutions, with a course duly recognized by the Ministry of Education, and doctors trained in foreign institutions with a diploma revalidated in Brazil, with Revalida”, he added.

Initially, 5,000 vacancies were offered by the Ministry of Health to the municipalities, with the final confirmation of 4,652 positions by local administrations, of which 595 were destined for the position of medical tutors and 4,057 for fellows.

See the distribution of doctors by state:

The definition of the places to be included in the program, according to the ministry, was organized through the classification of Brazilian municipalities by degree of priority. The primary criteria are the geographic classification defined by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the percentage of the vulnerable population.

Doctors for Brazil

The Doctors for Brazil program was created in 2019 with the objective of structuring the federal medical career for places with difficulty to establish the professional and with high social vulnerability. The program gradually replaced its previous version, Mais Médicos, and will be run by the Agency for the Development of Primary Health Care (Adaps), also created by the new program law.

One of the main novelties of Doctors in Brazil is the hiring of professionals under the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT). Until then, contracts were temporary for up to three years. Those approved in the program will be allocated to health units predefined by the ministry and will have two years to complete a specialization course in family and community medicine. The value of the training scholarship will be R$12,000 per month and an additional R$3,000 bonus for rural and remote areas or an additional R$6,000 for indigenous districts.

“From the beginning, the creation of a career from state to doctor was defended, and it is now materialized through the Doctors for Brazil program. This program will be expanded and I am sure it will be a watershed in the country’s health”, said Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga.

“I want to congratulate Queiroga for this Doctors for Brazil program, where real, well-paid doctors will be spread across Brazil to better serve our population,” said President Jair Bolsonaro.