[Access to diagnosis of tuberculosis in Brazilian medium-sized municipality].

OBJETIVO : Evaluating access to tuberculosis diagnosis, from the perspective of patients.

METHODS : Cross-sectional study with 108 tuberculosis patients. Data were collected using the brazilian instrument Primary Care Assessment Tool - PCAT-Brazil, adapted for attention to tuberculosis, including socio-economic and demographic indicators, location of diagnosis and diagnostic access tuberculosis. The analysis of the data was of frequency, average, standard deviation, confidence interval and Chi-square test.

RESULTS : Most cases were diagnosed in hospitals (52.8%). The patient sought the Health Unit on average three times until receiving medical care. The indicators of difficulty of displacement, expenditure on motorized transport and consultation within 24 hours to discover the disease were not satisfactory and regular. The chi-square test showed a statistical association between diagnosis location and seeking the nearest health unit from home.

CONCLUSIONS : There are weaknesses in the early diagnosis of tuberculosis in primary care. There are many challenges to be faced to strengthen this level of health care, with organizational capacity to overcome the shortcomings related to the patient and the service that make it difficult to access the diagnosis of the disease.