Primary Health Care accessibility in Brazil: User’s evaluation

Abstract Background Although advances are perceived in terms of expanding the coverage of Primary Care in Brazil, patient access or accessibility when using these services is still considered a challenge. Objective This work aimed to describe some dimensions of accessibility in primary Health Care in Brazil of the users’ evaluation who participate of the National Program for improving access and quality in primary health care, in 2012 in all the regions of the country. Method It is a descriptive, cross-sectional study. It was used the data of the III module which collect with interview with users, data specifically of the component for the use of health services. 65.391 users of 3.944 municipalities participated of this study. Results It was found problems with the geographical and organizational accessibility in the north and northeast regions. The organizational barriers were more evident in the scheduling consultations, in the lack of choice of professionals and the restricted opening hours. In addition, it was observed that most users cannot solve the emergency in the basic health unity. Conclusion There was progress in the accessibility, on the other hand in the North and Northeast regions needs greater investments to improve the organizational accessibility.