Acupuncture in Brazil's Unified Health System - an analysis based on different health management tools

The integration of Integrative and Complementary Practices into public health systems has been the subject of national and international debate. In Brazil, the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices guides the integration of acupuncture into the Unified Health System (UHS). This article explored the availability and/or accessibility of acupuncture in the UHS in 26 municipalities in the XIII Health Region of the State of São Paulo between 2001 and 2011, based on the analysis of Municipal Health Plans, Annual Management Reports and complementary data obtained from Information Systems. The data was analyzed using a framework for policy analysis based on: context, process, content and actors. Results show that the legislative framework provides a favorable environment; however public funding for these activities is particularly limited. Only government actors participated in the decision-making processes; the plans and reports contained inconsistencies both in structure and in the references made to acupuncture; the process showed that the policy helped to describe the organization of the provision of acupuncture services. The study concludes that the integration of acupuncture and use of health management and planning tools is limited in the 26 municipalities and that this precludes monitoring and maintains these practices on the periphery of the system.