Let your fingers do the dialling to access health rights in Argentina

0800 Salud Responde is a free hotline in Argentina that fields calls and complaints regarding health. Queries vary from questions about treatment and diagnosis to requests for legal advice.

Last year, the Health Answers team had a record number of calls, up 124% from 2014, when they first started. That translates to about 1000 calls a year.

The hotline, part of the National AIDS Programme in Argentina, also answers emails if people prefer communicating online. Based on the input from the hotline, the Argentina AIDS programme works on developing pamphlets on people knowing their rights and training health workers to address stigma and discrimination.

The hotline’s main purpose is to address human rights-related issues, but they field all sorts of other calls. The operators help to resolve administrative hiccups or pension payments. If questions involve violations of rights or legal advice, they refer callers to free legal services. They also suggest so-called safe place — non-biased health-care centres. One such place is the Friendly Services centre in San Martin, Buenos Aires. The centre was founded after a 2010 health study in Argentina pointed out that certain groups were excluded from the health system and not accessing health care. Friendly Services caters to transgender people, sex workers and gay men and men who have sex with men.

At first, the centre had few visitors, but once key populations got involved they rallied their networks and more people came. Now there are 21 Friendly Services centres, functioning mostly in public hospitals.

“It’s a positive step, more and more people are becoming aware of their rights,” says Sergio Maulen, Director of the National AIDS Programme of the Ministry of Health of Argentina.

Read more in UNAIDS’ new report Right to Health.