Os princípios do SUS

Série SUS Episode 3 The Principles of the SUS. Today we will talk about the Principles of the Unique Health Care System, known as SUS. Do you know what a principle is?

Principle, in the point of view that we will be studying here, is something fundamental, a rule or law that is the beginning of all the other laws, something that can not be broken, and the SUS has 12 fundamental principles, but we will talk about only 5 of them: Equity, Universality, Integrality, Decentralisation and Social Control. Let's start talking about equity. It seems to be a hard word, isn't it?

But let's make it simpler, because equity is a principle that involves solidarity, generosity and conviviality between different people and differences. Equity is not the same as equality, as most people think. It is more than that.

To explain it, let us give you an example: Imagine that you live in a neighbourhood and in it there is a Health Care Unit that assists everybody. You just have to go there to get health assistance. This means that everybody has the same rights to be assisted, right?

Now let's imagine that in this very neighbourhood there is a person with limited mobility, i. e, can not leave home. This means that this person will not have access to the SUS because he/she can not go to the Health Care Unit, right?

This is where Equity comes up, i. e, for this person to have the same rights as you, he/she might need to receive a wheelchair or house calls. In other words, Equity means different treating to different people for them to have the same rights.

Equity is not giving to some and leaving others without. Everybody has the right, but some people might need more support to guarantee these rights than others do. Yet, another principle of the SUS is the Universality.

It means that all the Brazilians have the right to health care and to the health care services they need, regardless of their complexity, costs and the nature of these services. The funding for these health care services comes from the money we pay in many taxes. This is called solidary funding and it is responsibility of the whole society and Federal Entities.

Now let's talk about another principle of the SUS and a big challenge: the Integrality. It means that the services will be linked, i. e working within a network.

As an example, if you're being assisted in an Basic Health Care Unit and you need other services than the ones offered in the unit, you will have the access to these services. So, by this principle the service must offer from orientation about how to brush your teeth to a heart transplant surgery. Another part of the Integrality is regarded to the way in which the Sanitarian Reformulation Movement and the Federal Constitution understand health, i.

e, the health is a whole, involving from the biological aspect until the social, economic and spiritual aspects of human beings. This also means that in order to do health it is necessary to bond the traditional, popular, scientific, philosophical and spiritual knowledge, because each person involves all these aspects simultaneously. The next principle of SUS is the Decentralisation, which means that the health care is not centred, i.

e, the SUS is close to people. This is what makes the SUS be almost everywhere, as close as possible of your home. The ideal is that you can go walking to a Health Care Unit and that the main services are close to you.

Of course everybody is thinking "I wish it was like this". It is a plausible thought. but for it to be like this it depends on you and it was foreseen in the principles of the SUS The last principle we will discuss is the public participation, i.

e, the Social Control. When well conducted, the Social Control can guarantee that the population can take part in the process of constructing the SUS and decide about the functioning of the health services, like where a new Family Basic Health Care Unit will be installed or the best timetable for the functioning of a service. The Social Control can be done in many ways and also within the instance of the SUS.

such as in the Health Councils and the Health Conferences. The councils are groups of people that help to take decisions about the functioning of the SUS. The social control is formally organised within the local Health Councils, who are the people from the community, and then in City Health Councils, which is the union of the local ones; then there are the State Councils, that get together in the National Councils, which means people from the entire country.

The Health Conferences get together every four years with the representatives from the many groups of the communities, such as societies, unions, churches, etc. These conferences evaluate the health situation of Brazil as a whole and help to propose solutions or rules to the health policies. Although the councils are a formal way of organisation within the SUS, they are not the only and better way of public participation.

You can build with your community the better way of controlling the SUS. This is the reason the SUS can be our health care, it is universal, for everyone, regardless of their nature, with equity; it is spread through Brazil by the principle of decentralisation and it is integrated to better assist you. Of course there are many problems and failures, but for these you have your rule as citizen in the social control, in the local health councils or in social movements.

So help to improve your health care and Brazil's health! Help to control the SUS!