DO BRAZILIAN SUS USERS HAVE ACCESS TO COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE ON PRIMARY HEALTH CARE LEVEL?

Introduction: The Brazilian Ministry of Health approved the National Policy of Integrative and Complementary Practices (Política Nacional de Práticas Integrativas e Complementares - PNPIC) within the public health system, called Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), in 2006. By offering low cost practices as acupuncture and phytotherapy, among others, SUS ensures coordinated care (integrality) to its users. Despite PNPIC´s implementation 10 years ago, access to complementary medicine is still restricted. Objective: The purpose of this review is describing the main obstacles of PNPIC’s implementation. Methods: The research was carried out in English and Portuguese based on the articles published in Portal Periódicos and SciELO's database. The search terms were complementary therapy, acupuncture therapy, traditional Chinese medicine, phytotherapy and homeopathy. Results: 57 articles about integrative practice in Brazil were found. After eliminating the duplicates, 44 articles were selected. The results show resistance to integrative practices by health professionals, lack of education of these practices in medical graduate training, lack of incentives by managers, lack of demedicalization of care as well as lack of information about these practices by both patients and health professionals. Conclusion: Although SUS implemented PNIPIC 10 years ago, there are still many challenges to overcome so that SUS users have real access to complementary medicine. Information about these practices for users and health professionals, integration of complementary medicine in the medical curriculum, as well as further research on this topic would be a step forward. Collaborative effort is needed to evaluate the benefits and obstacles of this public policy.