Analysis of the use of a public health clinics of the Department of Health of the city of S. Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

A working proposal for the integration of the activities of public health assistance is presented. Two health clinics in the city of S. Paulo, Brazil, were studied. Taking as a starting-point that all activity in the health sector depends on community participation, this study sought to discover how the population has received and used the geographically integrated health services. For this purpose, information was collected from the users of both of these services, by means of a questionnaire, as to the motive for the use of the service, the service's ability to meet the need, the degree of user-satisfaction, etc. The analysis of the above information as well as of the objective and the working method of these services, leads to the conclusion that they are used by the public in a selective way for the purpose of meeting immediate needs related to present illnesses.