Primary Health Care assessment in the COVID-19 pandemic from physicians’ and nurses’ perspective

OBJECTIVES: to assess the operationalization of Primary Health Care in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Primary Care Assessment Tool: PCATool-Brasil attributes, from physicians’ and nurses’ perspective. METHODS: a cross-sectional study, carried out with 99 physicians and nurses from Basic Health Units in a state in northeastern Brazil, with the aid of the adapted instrument PCATool-Brasil. RESULTS: Essential Score was classified as high performance (6.6) and General Score as low performance (6.5). First Contact Access, Care Integration, and Community Guidance scores were <6.6. The best performances were attributed to the Longitudinality, Comprehensiveness and Family Guidance services (scores>6.6). CONCLUSIONS: the attributes of Primary Health Care, in general, showed values above or close to the cut-off point in the assessment. These data can support strategies for local and national managers to strengthen Primary Health Care in the COVID-19 pandemic and future public health emergencies.