Grupo Hospitalar Conceição (GHC) will take over the management of the Bonsucesso Federal Hospital, in the north of Rio de Janeiro. The unit faces a series of problems, such as the closure of 200 beds and the emergency service and the lack of professionals, in addition to scrapping, which has been going on for around 30 years. The Assistant Secretary for Specialized Health Care at the Ministry of Health, Nílton Pereira Júnior, said that the prospect is that in December the emergency room will be reopened, as well as the beds currently closed, in addition to the expansion of ICU beds.
“The forecast is that by the end of the year we will have opened all 200 closed beds and reopened the emergency room, the ICU, the surgical center and all services”, said the assistant secretary in an interview with Brazil Agency.
According to Nílton Junior, Grupo Hospitalar Conceição will organize a selection process for the temporary hiring of more than 2,000 professionals, initially on an emergency basis, for the entire unit.
“The idea is that in 45 days, from the beginning of the operation, we will hire more than 2 thousand professionals, so that we can open all the beds that are closed, open the emergency room, which has been closed for several years, expand ICU beds, surgical rooms and all services”, he said.
The operation will be gradual, and subsequently a public competition is expected to take place to permanently hire professionals for the hospital. “As GHC is a public company, it holds competitions to have all hospital staff hired”, he explained.
Temporary contract
The secretary informed that the temporary contract for professionals will be for a period of 2 years, as stipulated in the legislation on fixed-term service in public companies. If necessary, the deadline can be extended.
There is still no forecast of when the public tender will take place.
“They [GHC] They will enter and we will begin the process of hiring the company to prepare the competition. This still depends on MGI approval [Ministério da Gestão e da Inovação em Serviços Públicos]which is authorizing temporary vacancies and will then present permanent vacancies. There is no timeline for this yet. It is important to say that the group will enter management and at the same time will begin contraction”, explained the secretary.
The new administrator will also work on renovations and equipment purchases. “There are several acquisitions necessary to open these beds and several renovations also necessary. We have a major problem with the hospital’s electrical system, which is old and has not been adequately corrected. During this period of 45 to 60 days, several renovations, equipment acquisition and staff hiring will take place,” he said.
According to Nílton Júnior, as GHC is a state-owned public company linked to the Ministry of Health, and which takes care of the hospital management of four other units in Rio Grande do Sul, it has expertise and experience. “We chose the best public institution, 100% SUS and with experience in hospital management”.
The secretary said that technically, from a management care point of view, “we are taking what is most modern, advanced, in SUS public hospital management, and bringing this experience as a novelty to a new management model, since what It’s happening today in federal hospitals, especially in Bonsucesso, it’s not a current crisis.”
Conflict of interest
Nílton Júnior contested the possibility of a conflict of interest due to the fact that the Secretary of Specialized Health Care of the Ministry of Health, Adriano Massuda, is also president of the Board of Directors of Grupo Hospitalar Conceição.
“That is definitely not true. We have very clear legislation in public administration, in the law on state-owned companies. Including with a Supreme Court decision [Tribunal Federal] which ratifies all issues. All public state-owned companies in Brazil have the participation of members of the government. In addition to being legal from a legislative point of view, this is expected and encouraged,” he said.
Reports
Nílton Júnior said that the complaints made by employees at the Federal Hospital of Bonsucesso regarding the progress of the unit’s scrapping in recent months are unfounded.
“What actually happened is a chronic process of management inefficiency due to various issues, both legal and managerial. From 2022 to 2023, under President Lula’s government, there was an increase in the budget for these hospitals. We increased the hiring of temporary professionals, which is the only possibility we have of hiring through the federal government at this moment. This year, in addition to having increased the budget, we anticipated the budget at the end of the year, in the middle of the year, so that there would be no shortage of supplies at the hospital. There is no scrapping process at the moment, on the contrary, what we are doing is avoiding greater shortages and a collapse of these hospitals, very palliative, because the federal government, through the direct administration of the Ministry of Health, does not have all the instruments, therefore That’s why the problems have been there chronically and persistently for years, and that’s why we’re changing the management model”, he explained.
“Only by changing the model will we be able to hire more people, buy more supplies and carry out the necessary renovations at the hospital”, he guaranteed.
Federal hospitals
As for the other federal hospitals in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, the secretary added that they are also in the process of defining managers. The Federal Hospital of Andaraí, in the north zone, will be managed by the City of Rio de Janeiro. The restructuring program will be announced by the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade. “The municipality will manage the Andaraí Hospital, we have already started this process. We are nearing completion.”
Nílton Junior said that the Brazilian Hospital Services Company (Ebserh), linked to the Ministry of Education, will also be a partner in another hospital in partnership with the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UniRio).
“We have several public partners linked to bodies from the ministry, the federal government or the municipality of Rio de Janeiro”, he informed.
According to the secretary, the process with Rio de Janeiro City Hall is ongoing, but due to the electoral period it had to be suspended. With the definition of the election in the first round in the city, negotiations were resumed. “The minister has an audience with the mayor soon. We don’t have a firm schedule, but most likely in the next few weeks we will be able to finalize the transition”, he revealed.
“The other hospitals are in the phase of a cooperation agreement, which will soon be announced with Unirio, Ebserh and the Ministry of Health. Following a partnership with Fiocruz and the Ministry of Health for the management of another hospital . One direction that the minister gave us with guidance from the President of the Republic is to carry out the process in a safe, staggered manner, so that we have financial, legal and managerial sustainability, so that there is no harm to assistance”.
