The perspective of health professionals on access to Primary Health Care

The term access is understood from the perspective of admission or entry into the system, related to the use of the system. This research seeks to analyze access to primary health care from the perspective of professionals in family health teams of three municipalities in the State of Minas Gerais: Ipatinga, Coronel Fabriciano and Santana do Para so. This work is a qualitative case study into the understanding of access on the part of professionals in family health teams. Twelve health professionals from different professional categories participated in the study. The data was collected through taped and subsequently transcribed interviews and analyzed using Bardin's content analysis technique. As a result the professionals showed that they believe that it is possible to improve working conditions and consequently the supply of services. The type of care and the inherent complexity make a difference in waiting time and the ability of the system to respond thereby impacting the quality of access. Professionals in the municipalities of Coronel Fabriciano and Santana do Para so consider the service to be organized and decisive. However, in the municipality of Jaipur, there is high management turnover that hampers the organization of the service and the smooth operation of flows and routines.