During the presentation of accounts to the City Council, the city government stated that it spent 33% of its own resources on healthcare in Foz do Iguaçu, approximately R$1 for every R$3. In the first four months, R$190 million was allocated to the sector, representing 68% of the city's coffers.
The data comes from the Detailed Report for the 1st Quarter of 2025, from the Municipal Health Department. It was the first of three mandatory annual presentations that the municipal administration must make to legislators.
Despite the importance of the topic, however, only six of the 15 councilors participated in the hearing: Paulo Debrito (PL), Dr. Ranieri (Republicans), Marcia Bachixte (MDB), Bosco Foz (PL), Evandro Ferreira (PSD) and Adnan El Sayed (PSD).
The city government reported that the 33% allocated to healthcare represents more than double the 15% required by the Federal Constitution. This volume of resources, it continued, covers the maintenance of essential services, restructuring of service flows and progress in consultations and exams.
“In a national scenario of scarcity, we were able to apply resources with a focus on health priorities for concrete results,” said Health Secretary Fábio de Melo. According to the administration, “historical bottlenecks” in the public system are being addressed.
Health in Foz
The Family Health Strategy teams cover 100% of the municipality, involving 95 doctors in primary health care. “However, the municipality still does not have professionals on call to cover vacations and sick leave,” explained the administration.
The government's solution, as stated in the Chamber of Deputies, was to ask the Ministry of Health for 25 professionals through the Mais Médicos program. And the public selection process for the area is in the organization phase, without mentioning deadlines or the number of vacancies.
Number of calls
Reproducing previous management patterns in health accountability, service numbers were listed as “progress”. The city hall data presented to the councilors are:
- UPA João Samek (Palm Garden): 41.657 appointments between January and April;
- Walter Cavalcante Barbosa UPA (Morumbi): 32.988;
- Municipal Hospital: 3.214 surgeries (803/month), 1.285 (321/month) of which were elective.
Other data
The report states that, in total, there were more than 487 primary care visits, 2.866 surgeries performed and more than 21 imaging tests performed in the first four months of the year. Indicators for maternal and child health and dengue fever were also released. According to the prefecture:
- child mortality: went from 7,58 to 6,9 per thousand live births, below the national average and the target agreed upon by the municipality;
- maternal mortality: zeroed in the four-month period;
- dengue: 4.321 records in 2025 against 15.747 in the same period of the previous year – one of the strategies adopted in the municipality, in partnership with the federal government and the state, the Wolbachia Method will be expanded to 100% of the municipality this year
According to the accountability, either people are very sick, consuming all the resources allocated to public health, or there may be a “donkey killer” in the way of this funding.