National program for access and quality improvement in primary care: An analysis of the main regulatory changes

Abstract

This article carried out an analysis of the main changes in the normative framework of the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Care, based on official documents from the Ministry of Health released from July 2011 to July 2019. The findings reveal that most changes were not clear, making it difficult to understand the design of the program and to monitor the results of primary care teams. There were changes in the overall design of the program and more intrinsically to the phases or components. The architecture of the phases was modified; the rules for joining the program; how to check self-assessment; the monitoring of indicators due to the implementation of a new information system or due to technical deficiencies in the use of a given indicator; the external evaluation in relation to the rules for requesting and deadlines for receiving the evaluation, the teams' disqualification, and the parameters and method adopted; and certification more radically in the valuation of the components and in the calculation methodology and classification categories of the teams. The program bet on several strategies for qualifying primary care. Although with limitations and incompleteness, perceiving them is an opportunity to seek viable solutions for the refinement of health policy.