Abstract
Two years after the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) Program, (Programa Mais Médicos - PMM) was put in place in Brazil, there is a need to study its feasibility. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the primary healthcare service offered, from the point of view of the health professionals, comparing units which have, and which do not have, doctors from the Mais Médicos Program. It is a quantitative survey, using for data collection the instrument Primary Care Assessment Tool - Brazil, Version for Health Professionals, applied across the totality of the family health units in a medium sized municipality in the interior of the southern Brazilian State of Paraná, from November 2015 to February 2016. It covered 72 professionals, 47 of them allocated in Family Health Strategy (FHS) units and 25 in FHS units containing the Program. In both groups the scores for core attributes (6.93) and general attributes (7.10) were considered to be appropriate to the precepts of primary healthcare. However, the attributes accessibility (4.17), in both groups, and coordination - information system (6.57), in units with the Mais Médicos Program, did not reach the satisfactory level, indicating a need to alter the organization of the Family Health Strategy, whether the PMM program is implemented or not.
Highlights
Primary healthcare has been indicated as an important strategy for reorganization and expansion of the effectiveness of the health system, with an outstanding effect in the world scenario as a means of reducing the inequities existing in the health sector[1]
The results of this study show that the Family Health Strategy (FHS) units have in general shown a strong degree of orientation toward, and the core and derived attributes appropriate to, primary healthcare, both in units without PMM professionals and those with permanent doctors from the program, in the opinion of health professionals
Since the primary healthcare attributes are intrinsically related to the quality of services, it is seen that the FHS of the municipality has commonly offered effective health action that resolves problems, the isolated analysis of each attribute showed the need for improvements in care, in relation to the attributes of accessibility and coordination
Summary
Primary healthcare has been indicated as an important strategy for reorganization and expansion of the effectiveness of the health system, with an outstanding effect in the world scenario as a means of reducing the inequities existing in the health sector[1]. It represents the first level of access for users of the health system, and is an essential element in the continued process of care, providing actions and services of prevention, promotion, protection and rehabilitation of health in such a way as to meet the real health problems of individuals, families and communities[2]. The presence and extension of these attributes in the services offered by Primary Healthcare are intrinsically related to the quality of services and the effectiveness of health actions[2]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
