Desenvolvimento e Saúde: A Dimensão Social do Projeto Montes Claros

Abstract

The field of health can be directly related to the development issue since the access to health, the implementation of health policies is not an end in itself. However, it is at the same time, determined by the type of development established in each country. In Montes Claros, in the 70s, a new proposal for structuring and provision of health services had been conceived and it became nationally known as Project Montes Claros. The debate development and health arose in Brazil in the First Republic, with the sanitarist thesis that explained the backwardness of the country as a result of insalubrity conditions. Subsequently, another line of thought proposed by developmentalist sanitarians became a strong criticism of this position, saying that only investments in health would not cause development. This last thesis has influenced the sanitary reform movement, in which the Project Montes Claros is localized, praxis of counter hegemonic ideas put on the national scene by the Movement in the 1970s. The work presented here studies the social dimension of a regional project, which served as a reference tool in building a new national health system (the Unified Health System - SUS). It intends to know to what extent it is possible to connect this project with the development of the city of Montes Claros, and also verify how the relationship development and health was thought within the Brazilian public health system. The methodology used was a literature review and documentary research on the subject.