Public Prosecutor’s Office, Municipal Health Councils and practices of interinstitutional dialogue

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the relationship between the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Municipal Health Councils (CMS), reflecting on how that institution can contribute to the effectiveness of the social control exercised in the Brazilian Brazilian National Health System (SUS) in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. A qualitative method, divided into documentary research and semi-structured interviews, was used. Prosecutors and health counselors working directly with the CMS of a health region in that state participated in this study. Results showed the SUS institutional control carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Maranhão is marked by fragile and irregular practices, despite the possibilities, capacities, and attributions granted by the 1988 Federal Constitution. The CMS researched showed deficiencies and limitations known to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has not yet oriented its institutional policy to strengthen social control through interinstitutional dialogue. The democratization and implementation of health policies in the municipalities of the health region researched depend, among other things, on improving the interlocution between the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the CMS. Such dialogue has the potential to qualify and strengthen social control in SUS.