The amount of hospital beds available for a community represents an important limiting factor to the medical care efficiency which is possible to offer to this community. In Brazil, one initial problem is the lack of any kind of study that could indicate the number of either general or specialized hospital beds required for the medical care of its population. Therefore, the authors must use data that is based on the transposition of foreign figures which are, for this reason, apt to criticism. Even with this limitation it seems reasonable to stablish, as the minimal requirement, the figure of 4 nonspecialized hospital beds for 1,000 habitants, of 1.5/1,000 for obstetrics and 1.0/1,000 por pediatrics. An analysis of the hospital assistance provided by the National Institute of Social Previdence (INPS) to its associates in the State of São Paulo permits one to outline the following observations: 1 - The existance of a great number of communities that completely lack of hospital facilities. 2 - A rate of 1.95 hospital beds for each 1,000 people ensured by the INPS if one considers the total number of beds; this figure is less than a half of the prestablished minimal acceptable index. 3 - The situation is even worse if one considers separately the data for intern medicine and general surgery, obstetrics and pediatrics. 4 - This hospital bed deficiency is even more striking in the Great São Paulo area when compared with the other administrative state areas. This is true for the total number of beds as well as for the specialized beds refered to above. 5 - As far as psychiatry is concerned, the observed index for the care of the ensured population of the social previdence is 0.5 beds/1,000 users, corresponding to 1/10 of the ratio international accepted as reasonable. 6 - In the field of tisiology this index falls to 0.14 beds/1,000 habitants. 7 - Considering the fact INPS already uses the facilities of aproximately 90% of the state private hospitals, the above mentioned indexes must aproximately correspond to those available for the total population when all the avaiable beds are included.
Hospital care; Social welfare; Community assistance
