The users' view on the delivery of speech therapy in the Brazilian Unified Health System in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil)

摘要

> size="2" face="Verdana">This article intends to analyze the supply of speech therapy services by the Brazilian Unified Health System in the city of Salvador. We have made thirty interviews with users at eight healthcare facilities, in differentiated shifts and we verified that the offer of speech therapy, in this city, is directed to medium and high complexity patients. There is a random and unequal distribution of services at sanitary districts. We have also noticed the multiple difficulties faced by users in accessing this treatment, which can be explained by the specialization of the offer, the network fragmentation and the deficit in speech therapy procedures, estimated in 131,315 per year. Therefore, regarding the concept of fair or bearable inequalities, and in order to reverse the inequities in the access to speech therapy, we suggest an urgent planning for this treatment in the three levels of attention.