Abstract
Background
During the three decades of the Unified Health System (SUS), the triad of universality/integrality/equality was complemented by the guarantee of access, which despite important advances, also registered the maintenance of challenges and even setbacks.
Objective
To understand the factors that influenced access to public health services.
Method
Interviews and focus groups were realized with 32 health professionals including managers from a municipality in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte characterized by the marked social and economic vulnerability. The theoretical structural, operational, and relational dimensions guided the analysis and interpretation of the professionals' narrative.
Results
The results showed that the structural dimension assumed a central role in the narrative of health professionals as determinants of access related not only to financing but also to questions related to the operability and organization of health services such as professional rotation and territorial planning.
Conclusion
Many of these issues are not amenable to interventions at least directly and in short terms by health professionals including managers, however, recognizing and reflecting on their influence on access to municipal health network services can be a productive path towards articulation, proposition, and implementation’s strategies.
Keywords:
health services access; health policy; health care