BREAKTHROUGH IN ACCESS IN A FAMILY HEALTH TEAM

Primary Health Care has as one of its principles the concept of "First Contact", understood as the patient‘s "gateway" through the health system, and, therefore, must ensure its accessibility. Considering access as a fundamental aspect for the establishment of Primary Health, this paper describes the experience of change in scheduling appointments for a Family Health Program team in a Basic Health Unit (BHU) in São Paulo - SP, Brazil. The Green Family Heath Team at BHU Vila Dalva used to schedule consultations for its registered population once a week, with a predetermined number of appointments. However, over time it was noted that this model was restricting access to heathcare. Seeking a solution to this problem, in March 2014 the so-called "daily demand" was created. In this new model, there are appointments with the family doctor and nurse daily. The patient schedules the appointment for the same period of the day, only needing to wait for the scheduled time. This new strategy has enabled changes in the users profile, with an increase in the number of young people and workers. Also, changes in the pattern of clinical complaints were observed, since besides chronic morbidities, acute demands are now more frequent. In addition, there has been an increase on confidence and patients satisfaction, which also strengthens longitudinality, another important principle of primary health care. Thus, the team has facilitated their patients access to healthcare, aiming to perform quality primary health care and fulfilling its role as "First Contact."