Social participation in the elaboration of municipal health plans in Brazilian capitals during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This objective work sets out to analyze whether the construction process of the 2022-2025 Municipal Health Plans (MHP) of the 26 Brazilian capitals and the Federal District (FD) provided for the inclusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enable citizen participation. A total of 37 documents published on the 27 websites of the municipal health secretariats (MHS) were analyzed, in the light of the theoretical concept of the Postulate of coherence, elaborated by Mario Testa for analysis of the health planning process. The results show that ten secretariats adopted strategies to monitor remote social participation in the preparation of the MHP and only nine provided virtual channels for public consultation to define priorities in the context of the pandemic. From the documents analyzed, the adoption of MHS strategies was not identified, such as virtual tents, granting assistance for internet access, tablets, spaces for itinerant access, among others, as a way to enable and encourage broader social participation, in health crisis situations.

Key words:
Health planning; Participatory planning; COVID-19; Unified Health System; ICT in health