Institutional support in the management of the Primary Health Care of the state of Bahia: an analysis of the working process

Abstract

Institutional Support is a Paidea Method´s resource to achieve co-management with a view to transforming a given reality. In the state of Bahia, Brazil, the Institutional Support emerged in 2007 to establish a new way of managing the Primary Health Care, in order to implement the guidelines of the State Primary Health Care Policy, evidencing the relevance of the work process developed in this context. This study aims to analyze the working process of the Institutional Supporters who work in the primary health care management of the State Health Secretariat in Bahia. This is a case study with a qualitative approach, carried out at the State Health Secretariat in Bahia, involving supporters and leaders. The data were produced by means of individual interviews and analyzed according to the methodological theoretical framework of the hermeneutics-dialectics. The results show ambivalent perceptions about the elements of the work process of Institutional Support and little reference to institutional management and planning documents, suggesting dependence on the individual characteristics of the Institucional Supporters for structuring the work. However, the study presents the potential to trigger a process of reflection/inflection in Institucional Supporters and leaders on the role of the support developed by the state management of primary health care, aiming at promoting (re)conformation of these practices and strengthening their policy.

Keywords:
health management; work; Primary Health Care; Unified Health System