The reasons to look for a university hospital’s childish medical treatment which is requested by parents or somebody responsible for the child Os motivos de procura pelo Pronto Socorro Pediátrico de um Hospital Universitário referidos pelos pais ou responsáveis

Health services are managed hierarchically in three levels of technological complexity: primary, secondary and tertiary, and the population should use them according to the specificity of their complaints, aiming at more efficiency and universal access. In practice, the population prefers to go to tertiary level hospitals for simple problems, which could easily be solved by Basic Health Service Units (BHUs). The objective of this survey was to find out the reasons why parents or children caretakers look for high complexity hospitals, and how frequently they make use of basic health services. This research interviewed 222 parents and caretakers of children who were undergoing medical treatment at the Pediatrics Emergency Room from a School Hospital located in the city of Londrina, in March and April of 2006. Data analysis showed that , although 80,6% of the population interviewed used the BHUs , 56,7% of the children seen at the Pediatrics Emergency Room came with no referrals, and 33,3% chose the ER for its quality services. The most frequent complaint was fever ( 21,6%) and other external causes took the last position with only 1, 4% of the cases . Results from the study showed that the Londrina State University School Hospital Pediatrics Emergency Room sees a great number of children with simple complaints which could be easily solved by basic level health care. However, in general, most hospitals have been legitimized by the population, used to always look for hospitals, rather than BHUs , whenever they need any kind of health care. Os servi os de saúde s o organizados, hierarquicamente, em três níveis de complexidade tecnológica: primário, secundário e terciário, e a popula o deveriam acessá-los conforme a especificidade de suas queixas, visando, dessa forma, maior eficiência na utiliza o dos recursos e universaliza o do acesso. Na prática, percebe-se que a popula o prefere recorrer a hospitais de nível terciário para situa es corriqueiras, as quais poderiam ser solucionadas nas Unidas Básicas de Saúde (UBSs). De acordo com o problema acima descrito, esse levantamento teve como objetivo avaliar os motivos que levaram os pais ou responsáveis a procurarem um hospital de alta complexidade para atendimento das crian as, investigando a freqüência e finalidade que essa popula o utiliza os servi os básicos de saúde. A presente pesquisa foi realizada com os pais ou responsáveis pelas crian as atendidas em um Pronto Socorro Pediátrico de um Hospital Universitário, localizado na cidade de Londrina, sendo aplicado entrevista a 222 usuários durante os mes