PRIMARY HEALTH CARE EVALUATION IN A MUNICIPALITY IN THE SOUTH OF BRAZIL

It was aimed to evaluate the quality of Primary Health Care (PHC) in a municipality in the South of Brazil, from the perspective of the users by the Primary Care Assessment Tool-Brasil (PCATool-Brasil). This is an evaluative study among 379 users of PHC services in the city of Guarapuava/Parana/Brazil interviewed using the PCATool-Brasil. Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics. The results show that the general and essential score for the city's PHA evaluation resulted in the values of 5.62 (SD +/- 1.15) and 6.05 (SD +/- 1.14), respectively. In the evaluation of each attribute, the lowest scores were from the derived component "community orientation" (Mean: 3.13, SD +/- 2.36), followed by "completeness - services provided" (Mean: 3.70, SD +/- 2.17) and "First-Contact Access - Accessibility" (Mean: 4.01; PD +/- 2.23). The best evaluated attribute was the "First-Contact Access - Use", with a mean score of 8.44 (SD +/- 2.44). It was concluded that there was a low quality of PHC from the perspective of the users in the reality investigated, especially regarding the attributes "community orientation", "integrality - services provided" and "First-Contact Access - Accessibility". The PHC evaluation was positive only in the items "Health Care Affiliation Degree" and "First-Contact Access - Use".