Abstract

Primary health care (PHC) is the organ of medical care that commonly is the first and closest contact between a health care professional and the patient. In different countries have been used “The Primary Care Assessment Tool” (PCATool). It has showed to be cross-culturally reliable for assessing primary health care. This study aims to measure and compare PCATool scores in two different neighborhoods in Sorocaba, Brazil. The data were from household interviews. There were 146 interviewees in each neighborhood during the year of 2018. The PCATool average score for Vila Sabia was 7.2, considered good; the average score for Vitoria Regia was 4.3, considered unsatisfactory. Both neighborhoods have problems in First contact–accessibility. Vitoria Regia presents a performance focused in immediate care. Vila Sabia presents a better performance, with a tendency for Universalist Primary Care model. Organizational factors related to the municipality’s health system could explain most part of these differences. Health is the foundation for building further social and economic development, equality and wellbeing for all inhabitants, and health questionnaires are essential for pointing out the weakness in the system and develop a well-functioning PHC-system.

Keywords

primary health care, health care assessment, household interviews, health equity