Núcleos de Apoio à Saúde da Família, seus potenciais e entraves: Uma interpretação a partir da atenção primária à saúde

Abstract

This paper reframes the role of the Family Health Support Teams (NASF in Portuguese), aiming to expand its conceptual and normative framework, focusing on its operational micro-management process. It discusses several ambiguities and facets in official regulations, public health literature, and decreases in services’ capacity (underutilisation of specialized matrix support teams). Based on the generalist and interdisciplinary operational character of primary care, a critique is made to the normative emphasis about specialists’ roles of general practitioners usually underappreciating the specialists’ care in the NASFs. Thus, the optimization of specialist support requires the specialist matrix team should assume fully and equally both the management of specialized care of referred patients and the matrix support to Family Health teams in a coordinated fashion. Thus, the expanded NASF’s may be able to encompass other medical specialties and consequently, becoming an excellent prototype of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS in Portuguese) secondary specialized management care.