Unidade de Pronto Atendimento

The UPAs work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, aiming to welcome and serve all users who seek medical assistance. They are also capable of solving a large part of the urgencies and emergencies; in the areas that have at least one unit, about 97% of the cases are solved on site. When a patient arrives at a UPA, the doctors provide help, control the problem, and detail the diagnosis. They also analyze whether the patient needs to be transferred to a hospital or kept under observation for 24 hours. The first unit was inaugurated in 2002 in the district of Alto de São Manoel, in the municipality of Mossoró. == Units in Rio de Janeiro ==

The first Emergency Care Units in the state of Rio de Janeiro were implemented by the State Health Secretariat during the administration of Governor Sérgio Cabral Filho and Health Secretary Sérgio Côrtes. The first unit was inaugurated on May 30, 2007, in Vila do João, one of the communities that are part of the Complexo da Maré. The implementation of the UPAs in the state of Rio de Janeiro also had the purpose of relieving the emergency rooms of the state hospitals, absorbing from them initially about 7 thousand patients daily. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, the management of the UPAs is done by the State Health Secretariat in collaboration with social health organizations. In March 2018, the General Audit of the State of Rio de Janeiro, a department linked to the Audit Court of the State of Rio de Janeiro (TCE-RJ), concluded a report detailing the damage caused by the implementation of some UPAs in Rio de Janeiro during the administration of Secretary Sérgio Côrtes. In the report, the technicians considered that the procurement for the construction of the units was illegal. The "tin UPAs", made with panels and steel and that would have cost more than the brick ones, were supplied by Metallurgia Valença. In a plea bargained agreement, the former undersecretary of Health, Cesar Romero Vianna Junior, said that each unit of the type that was built generated R$1.0 million in undue advantages. The lawyers of Ronald de Carvalho, owner of Metallurgia Valença, declared that there were no irregularities in the supply of the modules. Brazil currently has 464 UPAs operating 24 hours a day. The success of the model adopted in Rio de Janeiro has led other states and even other countries to adopt the initiative. The UPAs model was also imported by Argentina; the city of Buenos Aires, for example, had 12 units in July 2015. Daniel Scioli, former governor of Buenos Aires province, proposed the implementation of the initiative throughout the Argentine territory if elected president of the country in the 2015 presidential elections. == See also ==