Brazil launches nationwide home healthcare program

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday launched a nationwide home healthcare program which will be completely free of charge. The so-called "Better at Home" program is aimed at patients who are undergoing physical therapy, the elderly, people with chronic but not grave diseases and post-op patients. With the home healthcare initiative, the government expects to reduce the notoriously long lines in Brazil's public hospitals and vacate some beds in infirmaries. Rousseff said that the program will offer "quality treatment, close to the patients' families, with the feeling of safety we get when at home, and without the psychological pressures that we feel in a hospital." "We want to create a new standard of quality in the public healthcare system," she said. By the end of Rousseff's term in December 2014, the government intends to have 1,000 multidisciplinary teams and 400 support teams in the program. The teams will be formed by doctors, nurses, nursing assistants and physical therapists. Each team will be able to care for up to an average of 60 patients. The new program will require investments of 1 billion reais (574 million U.S. dollars), and will be carried out through partnerships with state and municipal governments. Any town with a population of over 40,000 will be eligible to receive funds for home healthcare.