Antonio Ugalde, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Texas-Austin, 1808 Glenncliff, Austin, TX 78704, 512-444-6031, augalde@mail.la.utexas.edu and Nuria Homedes, MD, DrPH, University of Texas Houston Health Science Center, El Paso Regional Campus, 632 Skydale, El Paso, TX 79912.

The promoters of neoliberal health reforms in third world countries had by and large overlooked how the proposed reform would impact the main actors of the reform, the health workforce, with almost the only exception of recognizing and providing management training for the decentralized entities and the newly organized autonomous/privatized hospitals that were previously operated by the public sector.

By comparison, health sector studies had always raised human resources issues as major contributors to the low efficiency and inequity of the sector. Issues like inequitable distribution of personnel, curative orientation, excessive specialization, inappropriateness of the training, imbalance among the different types of health professionals, absenteeism, the role of the unions and the civil service were prominent in most health sector evaluations.

Neoliberal health reformers ignored the previously identified human resources problems and misread the impact that the marketization of the sector would have on health professionals. For neoliberal health reformers market forces are the best mechanism to increase productivity and efficiency, and even imbalances among the different types of health professionals. The secrecy that surrounded health reform efforts in most countries and the policies promoted (privatization, decentralization and basic packages) have threatened the employment of may public servants and the power of the unions.

Using examples from Latin America, this paper presents the impact that the health reforms have had in the health workforce and also how the organized health workforce has enabled or precluded the implementation of the neoliberal health reform.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how neoliberal health reforms have impacted the health workforce in Latin America
• Discuss how organized health professionals have impacted the progress of the health reform
• Learn about human resources policies and programs that could have had a positive impact on the Latin American health systems

Keywords: Health Reform, Latin American

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.