Brazil free health drives serve hundreds in Paraná and Rio de Janeiro

A free health mutirão took place on Saturday, 1 August in Nova Cantu, Paraná, offering up to 300 clinical consultations and 50 minor surgeries across nine specialties. Ten doctors and 40 medical students provided the services at the Centro de Saúde Emiliano Bonifácio Campigotto, prioritising patients on the municipal health waiting list.

Meanwhile, a mobile ophthalmology unit – the Carreta da Oftalmologia – has been operating in Japeri, Rio de Janeiro for two weeks. In its first eight days it treated more than 1,200 patients, delivering cataract surgeries, eye exams and consultations. The unit, a partnership between the Japeri municipality and Brazil’s Ministry of Health, can perform up to 145 cataract surgeries per day. Subsecretary of Municipal Regulation Letícia Motta said the initiative “greatly speeds up care and reduces patient travel,” and patient Orli Ciliete, 67, expressed relief at finally receiving her cataract operation after a year’s wait.