Access to health care and diagnosis of tuberculosis

Resumen

The objective was to know the evaluation of patients with tuberculosis regarding the access to health care and the diagnosis of the disease. It is a cross-sectional quantitative study made in Natal, RN, Brazil, from February to September 2012, with 60 patients diagnosed with tuberculosis. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Access to health care was considered easy by 80% of patients. Of those, 35% considered it easy because of the short time to get a doctor’s appointment and 21.7% because of their relationship with the health professionals. The access to the diagnosis of the disease was also evaluated as easy (85%). Of this total, 33.3% rated it as easy, once the exams were made in the health service and 13.3% due to the short time to get immediate doctor’s appointment. It is concluded that the organization of the services was crucial for the good or bad evaluation of the access to the assistance to health and diagnosis of the disease.