[Management of health services: developed competencies and difficulties found in basic attention]

The objective of this article is to know the profile and check the competencies, management attributions and abilities in the level of structure of Basic Attention; to identify the difficulties and easiness in relation to their attributions and management of people. The research is a subject of study. A semi-structured and a scale of Likert were used as the guide of research that was applied to the management of the basic units of health of Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul State, in November of 2006. It was evidenced that all managers have management skills that include communication, organization of tasks, planning of actions and negotiation. However, some described that the difficulty for the accomplishment of their attributions would be not having specific graduation in management. The problems in higher evidence were related to the bureaucracy excess, the overload of activities, the small physical area, the difficulties in manipulating and working with equipment as well as managing people. It has been noticed that there is a great need of computerizing the public system and enable professionals to work in programs, in order to accomplish the new assistance model and to recognize situations of social vulnerability and in health.