Effects of the Mais Médicos Program on Primary Healthcare and its impacts on health: a rapid systematic review

Abstract

The distribution of doctors in Brazil is marked by inequalities, hindering full and universal access to healthcare, fundamental to SUS. The Mais Médicos Program (PMM) reached peak of emergency provision in 2016, with 18,800 doctors allocated to 4,509 municipalities, one of the largest interventions of its type. A rapid systematic review was carried out to gather evidence of the Program’s impacts on primary healthcare and on the assisted population’s health. 570 studies were extracted and the final selection included 32 articles. Regarding the Program’s effects, there was a rapid expansion in primary healthcare coverage, an improvement in comprehensiveness and humanization of healthcare, as well as significant impact on hospitalizations for primary healthcare sensitive conditions, which resulted in an approximate reduction of 23 thousand hospitalizations throughout three years, saving R$30 million for SUS. Critical points that undermined the Program’s potential impact were also identified: focus deviations; changes in priority criteria and undue replacement of hired doctors by PMM physicians, in addition to the disruption caused by the departure of 8,500 Cuban doctors in November 2018. It is estimated that the relaunch of the Mais Médicos Program, in 2023, especially based on existing evidence, will promote the continued progress of the Program.