How much does a specialized medical consultation cost for families of pediatric patients in the Brazilian Unified National Health System?

In this study, we investigated the costs of transportation for each outpatient consultation in patients referred to specialized surgical evaluation in a tertiary hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Descriptive study with guardians of pediatric patients scheduled for pediatric surgery, questioning transportation cost, and opportunity costs (loss of remuneration, food, payment of caregivers for other children, expenses for other companions). About half patients were aged up to five years; about two thirds had diseases of simple and definitive surgical resolution; and 181 families (89.17%) presented monthly family income up to BRL 1,999.00. The proportion of families that benefited from free transportation ranged from 4.26% to 15.56% for patients living up to 100 km away from the hospital (45.83% for patients living more than 100 km away from the institution). A total of 176 (87.13%) guardians reported expenses buying food, 12 (5.94%) paid caregivers to the other children on the day of the consultation, and 80 (39.6%) reported loss of remuneration for the working day. Among the high complexity cases, 9.33% of the mothers have given up their regular paid employment. Transportation expenses for a pediatric surgery consultation at a reference hospital in Rio de Janeiro cost about 4.42% of the current minimum wage, spending around 217.32 minutes of displacement/consultation. Expenses with food and loss of remuneration due to absence at work also entail significant financial charges or loss of remuneration for the patient at each consultation.