Evaluation of pharmaceutical services in primary health care in the care of patients with tuberculosis

ABSTRACT The Pharmaceutical Assistance integrates Primary Health Care services, contributing to the control of diseases, such as tuberculosis, with great impact on health. In order for that to happen, the pharmaceutical services must have adequate structure in its basic care units, as well as teams to develop and to process qualified work, which are important attributes for the evaluation studies. This work is the result of an evaluation guided by structured quality criteria and standards, and pharmaceutical work process in order to assist patients with tuberculosis in two health units (A and B) in Salvador-Bahia, through systematic observation, semi-structured interviews directed to pharmacists and managers, and patients' samples. The result of this study showed that unit A presented deficiencies in structure, unlike unit B. In the work process, the pharmaceutical services were poorly developed in unit A, but fully developed in unit B. It was possible to observe a clear relation between the structure and the work process in the pharmacy services for the care of the patient with tuberculosis: the pharmacy with the greatest deficiency in the structure presented low consolidation in the work process, and the pharmacy with the best structure presented full consolidation in the pharmaceutical services.