Resumo

FERREIRA, Beatriz; CORDEIRO, Tânia  e  BENTO, Alexandra. Integration of Nutritionists in Portugal’s National Health Service. Acta Port Nutr [online]. 2017, n.8, pp.16-21. ISSN 2183-5985.  https://doi.org/10.21011/apn.2017.0804.

Introduction: The National Health Service is the state structure in Portugal that ensures to the population the provision of health care. Integrated into the Primary Health Care Network and into Hospital Health Care Network, the units that make up the National Health Service prove to be privileged places for the incorporation of professional nutritionist practice, due to the fact that their work focuses on the health promotion, prevention and treatment, contributing to the reversal of the epidemiological scenario focused on the intensification of chronic noncommunicable diseases and to meet the health goals established at national and international level. Objectives: Determine the number of nutritionists practicing in the Primary Health Care and in Hospital Health Care of National Health Service. Calculate the number of users and beds assigned to each nutritionist integrated on the units that comprise, respectively, Primary Health Care Network and Hospital Health Care Network. Methodology: In this descriptive study, was obtained, by e-mail and phone, information about the number of professionals that practiced as “dietitian”, “trainee dietitian”, “nutritionist” and “trainee nutritionist”, according to the National Registry of the Portuguese Council of Nutritionists, in the constituent institutions of the National Health Service, the Health Service of the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the Regional Health Service of the Government of Azores. In the end, the adequacy of the ratios obtained was analyzed based on criteria transmitted by the Portuguese Council of Nutritionists. Results: There were a total of 416 nutritionists working in the National Health Service, of which 123 professionals belonged to Primary Health Care and 293 to Hospital Health Care. In the Primary Health Care was identified a ratio of 86.006 users per nutritionist and in the Hospital Health Care the estimated ratio was of 97 beds per nutritionist. Conclusions: The total number of nutritionists practicing in the National Health Service was clearly below what is considered appropriate, so the incorporation of nutritionists in the National Health Service should be strengthened.

Palavras-chave : Hospital Health Care; Primary Health Care; Noncommunicable Diseases; Nutritionist; National Health Service.

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