The Mais Médicos (More Doctors) Program in Mato Grosso State, Brazil: implementation analysis

Although the 224 health professionals engaged by the More Doctors for Brazil Project (Projeto Mais Médicos para o Brazil, PMMB) to strengthen the National Primary Health Care Policy (Política Nacional de Atenção Básica, PNab) in 104 municipalities of Mato Grosso (MT) State have encountered significant problems in the work process, important advances have resulted in the health of populations served by the More Doctors Programme (Programa Mais Médicos, PMM). This article analyses the implementation and development of the PMM in MT, from 2013 to 2015, on the basis of primary data from focus groups and interviews of social stakeholders at the institutions involved and secondary data from reports by supervisors, tutors, managers and institutions on the MT State Coordinating Committee (CCE) of the PMM. Despite political difficulties in managing implementation, the results show that the endeavour was beneficial in that it surmounted previous obstacles, afforded users greater access, prompted discussion of the problem and proposed and experimented with ways to strengthen primary health care. We conclude that there is a need for broader academic discussion of the provision and training of doctors, of the model of care and of human resource capacity-building by continuing professional development with integration among teaching, service and community.