The Doctor and his Work Process

Medical practice is going through a crisis. Despite all the technological advances in health, there is a lot of dissatisfaction when people need care in any health service. The aim of this text is to describe and analyze the work process or the way in which doctors are inserted into the productive process in health. The topic is justified by the understanding that this way of working can be a problem and at the same time a key to implementing models of care that are ethically and politically committed to the lives of users of public health systems. The description of the problem begins with the construction of the medical archetype and its historical and socio-cultural conditioning factors; it takes as an example the work process of doctors in basic health units in Belo Horizonte, constructed through interviews and participant observation, and points out some possibilities for intervention through the introduction of new concepts and technologies capable of transforming the work of these professionals in order to guarantee the formation of bonds and a greater degree of responsibility for the care and lives of users who seek public health services.