The representation of Oral Health in a Municipal Health Council: from absence to presidency

Abstract

Introduction/Justification: Social participation is part of the principles and is regulated by law 8.142 of 1990. One of the forms of social control defined in the aforementioned law is through the Municipal Health Councils, which by definition should be composed of 50% of users, 25% of health workers and 25% of entities providing health services. In Ituiutaba, a municipality in the interior of Minas Gerais, with an estimated population of 105,000 inhabitants, social control was practically non-existent, with little or no participation of servants of the oral health teams, in a council that for years presented a rotation of the same members in its composition and always electing the Health Secretary himself as president, showing total ignorance of the regiments and laws that govern social control. Objectives: To report the evolution of social control in the SUS of Ituiutaba, as well as the awakening of the dental class to the importance of its role in the public service. Activity developed: Since 2021, with the new management of public health of Ituiutaba, several actions have been carried out in the direction of organizing and legalizing all the processes that involve the development of SUS in the municipality. Among the actions, the Municipal Health Council was reorganized, correctly following its Rules of Procedure and the relevant legislation. As a principle of this new regulation, each category of municipal health professionals was requested to appoint a representative. In oral health, representation was defined voluntarily, with oral health assistant Silvania Almeida presenting herself as interested. After indicating the name of the assistant to join the board, the servant began to participate actively in the meetings. A career servant, woman, black, with a bachelor's degree and a degree in History, Silvania, who has always shown an interest in collaborating with public health policies, stood out in the group, being elected as President of the Municipal Health Council, unanimously. Results: As chairman of the council, Silvania gave voice to oral health, under his command the Council ceased to act as a mere approver of accounts and, in fact, began to exercise its role of overseeing and questioning, assuming an institutional maturity necessary to ensure an effective social participation. In holding the first Municipal Health Conference under her management, Silvania was responsible for taking issues related to oral health, both for the improvement of the service, and for the servants, raising questions in her working group and had 3 proposals of the area approved to be taken to the National Health Conference, where she participated with a member of the municipal delegation, being the first representative of the oral health workers of Ituiutaba to participate in the event. Concluding considerations: Social control is an institutional guarantee, but most people are unaware of the possibilities of participation. Ensuring this participation to all the participating professional categories of SUS was an important move in the municipality and made it possible for oral health to increase its horizons, leading to the knowledge of all our results, difficulties and perspectives.