Controle social na atenção básica: concepção e participação dos usuários sobre e na gestão de um sistema público/municipal de saúde

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the users’ conceptions of Primary Health Care (PHC) about health and social control, as well as the potential of them and/or their involvement in instances of popular participation /spaces for negotiations, produced in dialogue in language, a human condition that enhances social interaction and the production of healthy life. We sought to understand how they stand as citizens in the face of health issues. It is a qualitative research that involved 18 users registered in two units with Family Health Strategies teams in a city in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, the only ones that have Local Health Councils. The inclusion criteria were: users Family Health Strategies, over 18 years old, who were in the waiting room for these services on the collection days. The data, resulting from the Content Analysis, are organized into four categories: Health Conception; Knowledge and Perception of the Health Sector Functioning; Identification of Necessary Changes and Possibilities for Contribution; Conception on Social Control and Interest in Popular Participation. The predominant concept of health is still based on organic-physiological aspects; there was no understanding of health as a fundamental and universal right. Most did not know, properly, the municipal health system and even the service they used (only one user - a member of the Local Health Council - was able to characterize them properly). The changes indicated were at the level of individual responsibility, that is, regarding the particular health situation of the participants; many users have not identified themselves as agents of transformation. It is necessary to invest in the (in) training of users and, above all, in communication / dialogue between managers, workers and users in order to expand the concept of health and implement social control.