The boom of new health professional courses in Brazil: Clear imbalance - a national problem

 Introduction. Although it is specified in the Brazilian Constitution that health human resources planning is part of the National Health System’s (SUS) responsibility, this mechanism has not been regulated yet, causing a disorderly growth of courses of the health professions recognized in Brazil, without an effective assessment of their relevance in the logic of the National Health System. Objectives. Analyze the boom of new courses offered in five health professions in Brazil: medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and physiotherapy, and their possible impacts on the health system offered. Methodology: There was analysis of the historical series for the following information: number of courses available in the 1991-2006 period, location, number entrants and graduates, public or private character, and concentration of existing jobs. Results. The data suggest that during the period examined, there was disorderly growth of courses of these professions, ranging from 100% for medicine to up to 775% for pharmacy. Most schools keep the focus on the most developed regions of the country, further increasing the inequity of supply and demand for health professional schools. Moreover, this boom has helped to consolidate the hegemony of the private sector with the shrinking of the public sector. Conclusion. Results indicate a need for greater regulatory control of the State in the opening of courses in the area of Health, to ensure that such training is geared to the interests of Brazil’s National Health System and the Brazilian population. They also indicate a need of appropriate policies to establish objective criteria that seek balance between the social need for the health system and the existing educational demands.  It is imperative to bring together the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education allowing the match between supply and demand of health professionals in order to adjust the criteria in the regulatory process underway.