RESUMO
The article begins by considering the physician as a professional technically qualified to respond to a social need. First, the terms are defined: manpower equals the medical labor resource and the work of the physician in private practice, in the employ of a public or social security establishment, or in private firm. The article then examines the production system of medical care services in Argentina, where the functions of the State have been redefined since the depression of 1929 and have become more interventionist and care-oriented. This section describes three points: the organization and financing of medical care in three subsectors (public, social security, and private), advances in medical knowledge and technology, and the consequences for practice (specialization, subspecialization, and employment in large institutions). This part of the article stresses the effects on medical practice of introducing complex technology, and the special situation in Argentina where relatively highly qualified professionals are employed in auxiliary tasks. In the section specifically on the study of the labor market, relations between supply and demand care considered. This relationship depends on two interrelated social processes: medical education and medical practice. The possible relationships between these processes are examined, and the research is based on the assumption that there are many markets, each with its own supply of and demand for services and all differing in the sources of their financing. This section describes the characteristics of medical work in each subsector and their relationship to training. The section on the interconnection between the labor market and training describes the characteristics of undergraduate and graduate training and how they bear on the professional's placement on the labor market. Among the article's provisional conclusions, the authors emphasize the atypical character of this labor market, the social values involved, and the role of the State, which cannot be delegated, in the allocation of resources for health and in regulating the training and employment of medical human resources.