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Public health in Panama is administered by two separate entities:
Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud, MINSA) and the Social Security
System (Caja de Seguro Social, CSS). The hospitals and primary
healthcare centers administered by MINSA receive funding from the
General Budget of the Government. Those administered by CSS are funded
with the money collected from the workers' wages.
Medical Students, regardless of studying in a private or public university, all work in public hospitals.
Most attending physicians (Médicos Funcionarios) who work in the
public sector do so in the mornings. In the afternoons, they leave and
go to their private clinics. Others are fully dedicated to either
public or private practice.
After medical students graduate, in order to get an unrestricted
license to practice, they must pass through a 2 year paid internship in
the public sector. These are considered "Médicos Internos". These are
the doctors that work the whole day at the hospital and run mostly all
the chores assigned by the attendings and residents.
The actual public healthcare system has been criticized by many,
because of duplicity and inefficiency. Despite that, healthcare is very
accessible to people in urban areas and most rural non-indigenous
areas.
 
For more information, you may access the following websites:
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