SPECIAL PRESENTATION

In 2008, the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS - National Health System) and Conselho de Secretários Municipais de Saúde de São Paulo (Cosems/SP - São Paulo's Municipal Health Secretaries Council) celebrated their 20^th anniversary and, in this period, the work of thousands of people from the diverse segments involved in the construction of SUS was translated into many creative and innovative experiences in the municipal management of health in São Paulo.

Cosems/SP, in its 22^nd Congress of Municipal Health Secretaries of São Paulo, in the city of Bauru, simultaneously held the 1^st State Exhibition of Experiences of Municipal Management of SUS, which disseminated and awarded prizes to experiences developed in municipalities. In addition, it was an important space for the exchange and socialization of municipal experiences, as it offered different spaces for collective reflection.

The prize "David Capistrano", instituted in the exhibition, was an incentive to the SUS transforming experiences in the municipal management and the recognition of the merit of the involved players. Ten experiences received prizes and 41 honorable mentions were awarded.

The dimension to analyze the experiences were the principles that guide SUS:

• universality, understood as the possibility of managing the health system in an inclusive way, meeting the health needs of the population in their distinct expressions and dimensions and enabling the access to high-quality health services that are able to solve the population's health problems;

• integrality, which is a principle of continuous organization of health actions and services, providing individuals and collectivities with promotion, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation actions, and ensuring access to all levels of complexity. It presupposes attention focused on the individual, his/her family and community. The center of attention moves from the isolated professional to the team responsible for providing the adequate care, and from disease to the person that runs the risk of becoming ill, to the ways in which he/she gets ill and to the reality in which he/she lives. Other characteristics of integrality are multiprofessional teamwork, intersectorial action, knowledge and capacity to work with epidemiological, demographic, economic, social and cultural information of the population of each place and with problems of regional impact;

• equity, in which the differential element is the prioritization of health actions and services, taking into account the needs of individuals and collectivities in a fair way;

• social participation, understood as the "inclusion of new social subjects in the management processes of SUS as active participants in the debates, formulations and in the inspection of health policies developed in the municipal and regional scope". It is fulfilled in the institution of spaces like the municipal health pre-conferences and conferences, municipal health councils, councils for managing services, or by means of the creation of new spaces of social and popular participation, of group meetings according to affinity areas, among others.

The experiences were concentrated around two axes:

1 - Organization of Integral Health Care and Health Care Management.

2 - Health System Conduction.

The publication of this supplement of Revista Saúde e Sociedade, in partnership with Associação Paulista de Saúde Pública (São Paulo's Public Health Association), aims to disseminate the experiences that had an outstanding participation, being awarded prizes or honorable mentions, as we believe that the circulation of successful experiences contributes to the qualification process of the municipal management.

Special Editor

COSEMS/SP

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  25 June 2009
• Date of issue
  Mar 2009