Abstract
The study aimed to know the understanding of health counselors in the State of Rio Grande do Sul on the topic of health regionalization. It presents a qualitative nature, and for data collection, semi-structured interviews were used with eight health counselors intentionally appointed by the State Health Council of Rio Grande do Sul (CES/RS), one representative per Health Macro-region and one representative from the board director of CES/RS. In the theoretical approach of the study the concept of power in Mario Testa was used and in the content analysis the thematic analysis technique was applied. It was observed that regionalization in health did not translate into a specific topic of discussion for the health counselors interviewed. Access, user embracement, power relations, conversation networks were secondary themes that appeared related to the themes of regionalization and health governance. Thus, in the case studied, the theme of regionalization and governance in health still needs to be deepened by social control and has the potential to be explored in future research on the subject.
Keywords:
Regional Health Planning; Health Services; Health Governance; Social Participation; Health Management