The public health service in the municipality of Araraquara. From the Health Post to the Health Training Center: Analysis of a path

Abstract

The extension of health services towards the countryside is a topic which has attracted the attention pf academic investigation due to some insufficiently analyzed components, such as the dynamics established with state, philanthropic and care-providing institutions, international funds and local arrangements. In the context of such diversity, the municipality of Araraquara, in the countryside of São Paulo state, was an atypical case as it had city funded services since the early Republic. Another unique element was the presence of the Public Health School of the São Paulo University, which has, since 1947, maintained the “Serviço Especial de Saúde de Araraquara” (SESA). This paper analyzes the path of the health care services in the city of Araraquara in the first half of the 20th century, covering two central aspects: the creation of the first health post in the 1920s and the founding of SESA in the 1940s. The sources used for this paper were collected from national and international archives, city and state government reports, as well as reports produced by the Rockefeller Foundation, all of which allow us to understand the path of the health care services. Thus, the city of Araraquara represented a different experience when compared to other cities, which underwent state interventions to organize their health services. The city distinguished itself for developing services funded, at different moments, by the city itself, with financial aid from the Rockefeller Foundation through either the Health Service or the State Health Department.

Keywords: public health, Rockefeller Foundation, Serviço Especial de Saúde de Araraquara.