This Wednesday (10), the state of Rio de Janeiro received 50 professionals from the Mais Médicos Especialistas Project. The action is part of the Agora Tem Especialistas Program, which aims to reduce the population's waiting time for consultations, exams and specialized surgeries in the Unified Health System (SUS). With the 18 doctors who started last year, the state has 68 professionals from Mais Médicos Especialistas. They will work in the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro, reinforcing specialized assistance and the service capacity of the public health network in the state. Related news: Government establishes Quality and Patient Safety Policy in the SUS. Low back pain is the second biggest cause of medical consultations. SUS had a record with 14.7 million elective surgeries in 2025. The general coordinator of Training and Innovation for Professional Provision at the Ministry of Health, Thais Maranhão, explains that the program seeks to improve doctors who are already specialists so they can update themselves and develop other skills. The doctor provides 16 hours of care for the SUS population and four hours of training in his area. "Firstly, managers see where the bottlenecks and queues are, and they point out to us the services they need most. We issue a public call for doctors. They participate in a selection process in which they tell us where they want to go. There is a movement of doctors between states", said Thais. In Brazil, the Mais Médicos Especialistas Project has 1501 professionals and the prospect is to reach 2 thousand doctors by the end of the year. The State Secretary of Health, Ronaldo Damião, said that Rio is still experiencing the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, in which thousands of surgeries were no longer carried out due to the overcrowding of hospitals at that time. "The queues and waiting times have increased. This proposal aims to reduce waiting times, especially in high complexity cases. Specialists in crucial areas such as oncology, cardiovascular surgery, radiotherapy were able to present themselves. Hospital Universitário Pedro Ernesto, Hospital Universitário da UFRJ, UFF, UniRio have the possibility of helping a lot. The biggest bottleneck is in the city of Rio and the metropolitan region", said the secretary. Gynecologist Lorena Rodrigues Nascimento, 30 years old, from Juiz de Fora chose the city of Maricá, in Rio, as it is quieter and more beautiful. She started working in April at a secondary care diagnostic center where she performs a colposcopy exam that analyzes the cervix, vagina and vulva using a device with a magnifying lens performed after the preventive exam. "I had a very memorable experience with a family member in the SUS. After that day, I decided that I wanted to work in the SUS again and I feel very grateful. It's an opportunity to give back some of my training to the SUS", said the doctor.