The Family Health Strategy assessment: perspective of users in Minas Gerais, Brazil

The Family Health Strategy (ESF) has key role in Primary Health Care in Brazil. It has assessed the ESF in the user perspective, in a health region of Minas Gerais, by means of an evaluative, quantitative and cross-sectional survey, using the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool). Users have the ESF as the main resource of health care and have valued it as the coordinator of care in other healthcare levels. However, they consider that there are organizational barriers in access; community needs are not the basis to the range of services; in the organization of the actions there is no place for the user participation, and the family is not always the central unit of care.