Health in Santa Marta - Colombia from the perception of its inhabitants

Objective: to analyze and to understand the perception that there have the inhabitants of the city of Santa Marta about health. Materials and methods: the developed methodology was of type qualitative, analytical and descriptive, for which there developed five (5) focal groups and semistructured interviews with inhabitants of different communes of the city. Results: there is demonstrated the dissent that the participants have with regard to the health in Santa Marta. The dissents were classified under two big aspects: associated with the social context and the related ones to the services capability. In relation with the first one, serious deficiencies were identified by the public service of aqueduct and sewer. As for the bad quality in the attention, the costs, especially of the contributing regime and the specialists' deficit, emerged as the most relevant factors that generate dissent in the inhabitants of the district. Conclusion: in agreement with the perception that there have the inhabitants of the city of Santa Marta, the health is deficient as result of contextual factors and bad quality in the services capability.