A Unicamp held on November 13th the first stage of the seminar “The Metropolitan Region of Campinas as an object of the study program in regional health systems”, with the aim of promoting rapprochement between public administrators, researchers and managers in the medical field. hospital at the University, consequently providing discussions that can support projects aimed at consolidating the Unified Health System (SUS) at a regional level. The second part of the event will take place on November 27th and will have the theme “Health at RMC: New perspectives and challenges”. The initiative is from the Dean of University Development (PRDU), with support from the Population Studies Center (Nepo) and the Public Policy Studies Center (Nepp).

The first stage of the seminar, entitled “The different perspectives on the RCM”, brought together approximately 50 people in the auditorium of the General Directorate of Administration (DGA). According to the head of PRDU, professor Paulo Eduardo Moreira Rodrigues da Silva, the event is the result of Unicamp's concern to enhance its relationship with the 19 municipalities that make up the metropolitan region. “We want to build an adequate space for discussion about regional problems and we are willing to collaborate to find solutions,” he said. The mayor of Santa Bárbara D'Oeste and president of the RMC Development Council, José Maria de Araújo Júnior, considered the University's initiative fundamental for the formulation of cooperative actions, especially in the area of ​​health, which he highlighted “as the main concern of mayors.”

According to the executive director of the Campinas Metropolitan Agency (Agemcamp), Luiz Augusto Baggio, the seminar organized by Unicamp arose from a request presented by the mayors during one of the Development Council meetings. “Like public managers, Agemcamp understands that the studies developed by Unicamp researchers can be important for tackling problems affecting the region.” The director of the Coordination of Interdisciplinary Research Centers and Nuclei (Cocen), Jorge Tapia, highlighted the University's tradition in developing research and its insertion in society. He defended the need to promote the interaction of the various actors involved with health issues in the region and recalled that the problems affecting the sector, most of them complex, will require multidisciplinary approaches.

During the seminar, Agemcamp's technical director, Afonso Castro, gave a historical review of RCM. Then, supported by statistical data and maps, he detailed current aspects linked to the metropolitan region, such as demography, environment, transport, housing, among others. The president of the Nepp Scientific Council, professor Geraldo Di Giovanni, presented the project “Metropolitan Governance Model for the State of São Paulo” to the public. The objective of the study, as the name of the project suggests, is to try to develop management standards aimed at regional reality. According to Giovanni, the governance concept used in the project, whose funding request was submitted to the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp), is not neutral. “It incorporates a strong ethical component,” he said.

The intention is to arrive at proposals that allow the implementation of decentralized management models, which can be operated by different levels of government. “We also intend to formulate recommendations to generalize the application of successful solutions, in order to provide greater efficiency and effectiveness to spending promoted at the federal, state and municipal levels”, says Giovanni. He added that the project is a kind of “child” of another developed for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which analyzed successful health policies in 14 Latin American countries.

Common problems – The coordinator of Nepo, professor José Marcos Pinto da Cunha, explained to the seminar participants aspects of the research entitled “Evolution of living conditions, segregation and vulnerability in the RMC”, which is funded by Fapesp. The project has already taken four years of studies and still has two more years to go. Using demographic, economic and social indicators, distributed especially with the help of maps of the metropolitan region, Cunha demonstrated that the problems affecting a given municipality actually have a regional dimension, as they are common to most of its neighbors.

The spatial distribution of data relating to the RMC, according to the professor, allows a qualified reading of the region, which favors the adoption of more effective measures to combat problems. The event also included the participation of doctor Savério Gagliardi, member of the Campinas Municipal Health Department and the RMC Health Technical Chamber. In his speech, he presented a wide range of data on the region's medical and hospital structure. The second stage of the seminar, on the 27th, will be held from 14pm to 17pm, in the DGA auditorium.