The National Policy for Emergency in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions, with approximately 200 million people and which chose to institute the universal right to health at the end of the 80s. The Unified Health System (SUS) lives since then with a robust private health care, heavily subsidized by public funds and serves approximately 25% of the population. This double supply of health systems produced a SUS with serious structural deficits and financing. By the early 2000s access to the SUS occurred primarily through primary care units and emergency departments. The shortage of intermediate complexity and diagnostic - therapeutic units of specialty services increased the demand on hospital emergency services, generating an enormous wear and dissatisfaction of the population with these services