section_path: Demographics/Health care
section_name: Health care
paragraph_text: Health care
  
  São Paulo is one of the largest health care hubs in Latin America. Among its hospitals are the Albert Einstein Israelites Hospital, ranked the best hospital in all Latin America and the Hospital das Clínicas, the largest in the region, with a total area of 600,000 square meters and offers 2,400 beds, distributed among its eight specialized institutes and two assisting hospitals.
  
  The main hospitals in the city of São Paulo concentrate in the upper-income areas, the majority of the population of the city has a private health insurance. This can includes hospitals, private practices and pharmacies. The city of São Paulo has the largest number of foreigners comparing with any other Brazilian city and an intense health tourism. In Brazil, the city of São Paulo has the largest number of doctors who can speak more than one language, which in this case is Portuguese, with the secondary languages predominantly are English and Spanish.
  
  The private health care sector is very large and most of Brazil's best hospitals are in the city. As of September 2009, the city of São Paulo had: 32,553 ambulatory clinics, centers and professional offices (physicians, dentists and others); 217 hospitals, with 32,554 beds; 137,745 health care professionals, including 28,316 physicians.
  
  The municipal government operates public health facilities across the city's territory, with 770 primary health care units (UBS), ambulatory and emergency clinics and 17 hospitals. The Municipal Secretary of Health has 59,000 employees, including 8,000 physicians and 12,000 nurses. 6,000,000 citizens uses the facilities, which provide drugs at no cost and manage an extensive family health program (PSF – Programa de Saúde da Família).
  
  The Sistema Integrado de Gestão de Assistência à Saúde de São Paulo – SIGA Saúde (Integrated Health Care Management System in São Paulo) has been operating in the city of São Paulo since 2004. Today there are more than 22 million registered users, including the people of the Greater São Paulo, with a monthly average of 1.3 million appointments.