Social Security challenge is to reduce queue for expertise, says Carlos Lupi

The biggest challenge for Social Security is to reduce the queue for a medical examination: of the 1.8 million people awaiting assistance from the INSS, more than 1 million are waiting for an examination. This statement was made by the Minister of Social Security, Carlos Lupi, in an interview with the Voz do Brasil program on Monday (22). Lupi pointed out that joint efforts are underway to reduce waiting times, especially in remote locations. “Today we have around 3,000 experts to take care of the whole of Brazil. And what happens? In the interior of Brazil, access is difficult. You go, for example, from João Pessoa to Campina Grande, it is easy, but in the interior of Paraíba it is more difficult. The same thing in Rio Grande do Norte. Imagine in the Amazon, where you only have access to some municipalities by boat. So we are starting to do a joint effort, in which we are going to take a group – and this is already happening – of expert doctors to go, mainly, to the most distant places where people need it.” Listen on Radioagência Nacional In addition, next month, the Ministry of Social Security intends to conclude an agreement with the Ministry of Health to computerize medical certificates for the purposes of health licenses. According to Lupi, 30% of these documents arrive illegible at the INSS. “Look at that absurd thing, but I have to say: 30% of the people who receive a medical certificate to take the health leave, the administrative sector cannot read it [o atestado]because the handwriting of a doctor, with all due respect, is a handwriting with some difficulty [de leitura]. So what happens? The Ministry of Health will put this in the computer and the certificate will be computerized. So I won’t need anyone to interpret. Immediate validity is already there.” Another measure that must be taken to reduce the queue for medical expertise is the use of telemedicine. year. “Does someone need to make a person walk 400, 500 kilometers, to show that he has a problem with his leg, that he cannot walk, that he is paralyzed, that he is blind? Could it be that using a cell phone, a computer image cannot be seen and attested to? When in doubt, then you need to go to the expert [presencial].” In February, when he announced the carrying out of joint efforts to reduce the queue for medical expertise, Minister Carlos Lupi highlighted that the service would be given with priority to the states that concentrate the largest queues of beneficiaries: Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco.

Agência Brasil