The Ministry of Health will open new vacancies to qualify more than 180,000 Community Health Agents (ACS) and Agents for Endemic Disease Control (ACE). This will be the second degree of the Health with Agent programme, which promotes permanent technical training for these professionals working across the country. The first group, which is in its final phase, with graduation scheduled for September, involved nearly 200,000 professionals. This is the largest Brazilian technical training program in the health field. With the procedure, the entire class active in SUS will be considered.
The announcement was made on Monday (17), by Minister Nicia Trindade, during the 37th National Congress of Municipal Health Secretaries, in Goiânia (GO). Altogether, the program investment is over R$388 million. Health with an Agent includes blended training, a 1,200+ hour workload and a minimum ten-month tenure.
The initiative is leading to better health indicators and problem-solving capacity for primary care services, as well as enhancing agents’ insight into the information collected in the areas and the best guidance given to users. Divided into 26 majors and 40 recorded lessons, the course also contains four thousand pages of technical content designed for interactive classes. The initiative was born with the aim of strengthening primary care policy, as a result of a partnership between the Ministry of Health and Conasems.
Professional recognition
In addition to professional qualification, the program responds to an old class request with recognition and appreciation for the work done by agents. Also in January, the President of the Republic, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, passed Bill 1802, which promotes basic health care, establishes rights and values the importance of professionals who work in the end, close to the reality of the population. The action amends legislation and specifies that Agents for Community Health (ACS) and Agents for Endemic Disease Control (ACE) are health professionals.
In practice, as health professionals, agents are now entitled to hold public offices, which are guaranteed by Art. 37 of the Federal Constitution only for education and health professionals. Every agent currently active in the country gets paid in full with funds transferred by the federal government – in 2022, R$7.8 billion has been committed. For 2023, the allocation of R$ 9.9 billion (which is an increase of 27%) is expected to strengthen the work of basic healthcare.
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Ministry of Health
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