Search

The article presents the staff of social workers in Portugal's healthcare system, analyzing ratios due to the resident population and their distribution in primary and hospital care, discussing the implications for health system quality. The results of the descriptive study indicate the existence of 1032 health social workers, mainly divided between hospital care (52.4%), and primary care (42.9%). The ratios determine 1 social worker for every 10,000 residents, 1 for 23,000 residents in community-based primary care, and 1 for 65 hospital beds. Within the health team, the asymmetries are evident, with 1 social worker for every 69.3 nurses and for every 50.3 doctors. Conclusions show the stagnation of health social workers, their unequal geographical distribution, and imbalanced ratios to the number of inhabitants, users, health units, hospital beds. and other professionals. This conditions a quality holistic approach and limits equal citizens' rights. The transversality and complexity of health intervention are not compatible with the highlighted limitations, urging the reinforcement of the Social Work professional group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]