Marcia Castro: The SUS belongs to everyone and everyone uses the SUS – 09/10/2023 – Marcia Castro

On September 27, the National Organ Donation Day will be celebrated. The Green September campaign promotes awareness and encourages donation. This topic gained a lot of attention last month when presenter Fausto Silva, known as Faustão, entered the heart transplant list.

Either out of bad faith or lack of knowledge, a lot of nonsense was said at the time. No, celebrities don’t jump the waiting list for an organ, nor do they buy an organ. Donation, the waiting list and organ transplantation are regulated by the National Transplantation System, that is, they are one of the attributions of the SUS.

There are more than 23,000 transplants per year, second only to the United States in number of procedures. The difference, however, is that almost 90% of transplants in Brazil are performed by the SUS, which makes Brazil the country with the largest public transplant program in the world.

The scope of the SUS and its importance in the daily lives of the entire population are unknown to many. In 2021, vaccination against Covid-19 caused a portion of the population to discover SUS and its value. However, SUS is much more than vaccination, appointments, exams, hospitalizations and transplants.

Through sanitary surveillance, SUS inspects the quality of food in supermarkets, bars, snack bars and restaurants, the quality of cosmetics, cleaning products and medicines, inspects ports, airports and bus stations, regulates the advertising and sale of cigarettes and controls the import and export of some goods. Environmental health surveillance monitors the quality of water used for human consumption.

As part of primary care, Brazil is an international reference in human milk banks and has the largest network of human milk banks in the world. In 2022 alone, there were 196,758 donors and 222,693 recipients of human milk.

Health units provide nine contraceptive methods: monthly and quarterly injectable contraceptives, mini-pill, combined pill, diaphragm, emergency contraceptive pill, intrauterine device (IUD) and female and male condoms.

Mobile emergency care (Samu) is provided by the SUS. Therefore, anyone who has an accident on the street needs the SUS. In addition, those who have a health plan also depend on the SUS for the regulation, qualification and supervision of plans and private health units.

And the SUS also maintains an open channel with the population, through the Disque Saúde (number 136), to answer questions and receive complaints, compliments, requests and suggestions.

The SUS does all this even though it is underfunded. Therefore, there are bottlenecks, such as queues for specialized care and the continuous expansion of arboviruses. But there is dedication and resilience.

In the Amazon, the SUS adapts to the local context. As proposed by researchers from Fiocruz Amazônia, the territory is liquid, that is, the rivers make the connection between the population and the health services. Basic river units are vessels that serve riverside populations along the region’s rivers. The unit’s team (from the helmsman to the doctor) is on board 20 to 22 days a month. Dedication and resilience.

The SUS belongs to everyone and everyone uses the SUS. The daily presence of SUS in the lives of the population can go unnoticed precisely because the service provided works. The paradox of success.

Remember SUS the next time you go to the market, go out to dinner, travel, or have a glass of water.

Above all, fight for SUS! You depend on him, even if you don’t realize it.

LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access five free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.