Urgent and emergency care networks in Brazil: an integrative review

Abstract

The Urgent and Emergency Care Network (RUE) was proposed in Brazil as a public policy to articulate and integrate the health services of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS), expanding and qualifying the access of users in e emergency health situations in an efficient and timely manner. This study analyzes the scientific production on the RUE in Brazil and elaborates summaries showing the limits and challenges of this health policy. An integrative literature review was used as a method, based on the search for articles in the LILACS, SciELO, and MEDLINE databases and for dissertations and theses on the virtual platform of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). The investigation enabled the analysis of 34 studies in the field of collective health, focused on the different emergency services and the integration between them, including possible changes in the health care process and different evaluation strategies, by using different approaches, mainly qualitative. Weaknesses are observed in the network articulation, maintaining the centrality of hospital services and the power of its symbolic capital, with primary care being relegated to the discursive field.