THE BRAZILIAN UNIFIED HEALTH SYSTEM FROM PRIMARY TO HIGH COMPLEXITY CARE

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The medical students’ approaches to the Primary Care (PC) are still tenuous, since there is still a gap, both in academics and in professional work, between high and low complexity. In this respect, a better understanding about the transition between the levels of care provides technical and personal maturity to the students, especially in decision making. The present work describes a medical student’s experience in monitoring a patient belonging to the area covered by the Maria Neide da Silva Souza basic care unit, located in Mossoró / RN, from the consultation with the family medicine doctor to the high complexity services, that is, from its onset to the resolution of the presented pathology. METHODS: Clinical monitoring was performed, supervised by doctors in the primary and in hospital care, with exchange of information between primary and tertiary levels of care. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The present work was proposed after a follow-up consultation of a 51-year-old male patient, complaining of low back pain and paresis in the lower limb. After investigation, an intramedullary schwannoma was diagnosed. Despite the case require neurosurgical care, it’s prerogative of the PC continuing patient care, both pre- and postoperatively. In addition, prescribing tests and referring to specialists sometimes delays diagnosis and, in some cases, it’s impractical, due to the frequent lack free resources offered by the Brazilian public health system.