Primary Care

In this study we seek to reflect based on the experience of professionals on the relationship between primary care practices developed in a UBS and the SUS policy guidelines to which they refer. We provide a brief historical overview of healthcare practices contextualising primary care and its current situation in Brazil in order to examine how this context affects daily practice. Based on the statements of workers and observations made at the UBS we identified a gap which we refer to as lacunae between the work prescribed by political guidelines and the work actually performed. In our analysis we identified contradictions regarding these guidelines and programmes derived for Primary Care: few resources and investments in work that requires highly complex technical study and deep empirical knowledge of reality to deal with the demands of the population. The complexity of this sector is expressed among workers through ambiguous and contradictory feelings regarding their own professional performance and the relationship established with users of the health system.