Costs and public health: a comparative study of costs in Basic Health Units in the municipality of Londrina/PR

Primary Health Care (PHC) is the gateway to the Unified Health System (SUS), and the Basic Health Unit (BHU) is the protagonist in this process. BHUs must be able to meet the PHC needs of a user, preventing them from having to seek other services, such as hospitals and emergency rooms. The management of the UBS is done by the municipalities themselves, which makes it easier to change practices and optimize the services provided. However, for this, it is first necessary to know the current condition, that is, how much a UBS produces and how much they cost to the public coffers. This is precisely what this research seeks: To ascertain and analyze the direct costs of the 54 UBS, based on the municipality of Londrina-PR, in the year 2016. To this end, this research is classified as descriptive, quantitative and applied. A census was carried out with the 54 UBS of Londrina, collecting data related to the costs of each unit, as well as values related to the productivity of the servers in the different functions. The collection of secondary data took place with the help of the Municipal Health Secretariat of Londrina and the combination of data referring to total costs allowed us to identify that 89.78% are Personnel Costs, followed by Consumables (8.05%) and Administrative Costs (2.18%). In general, the UBS in the urban area turned out to be more expensive than the rural units. It is concluded, therefore, that this research can contribute as a first look at a scenario that did not have studies like this, serving as a tool for the public manager for decision making.