OCORRÊNCIA DE NOTIFICAÇÕES PARA O TESTE DE PROCESSAMENTO AUDITIVO CENTRAL NA REDE DATASUS NO PERÍODO PANDÊMICO

Speech Therapy is part of the Unified Health System (SUS) and plays a crucial role in achieving SUS's objectives, working in a multidisciplinary manner in public health care in Brazil. DATASUS provides information that can support objective analyses of the health situation, evidence-based decision-making, and the development of health action programs. Objective: To analyze the proportion of central auditory processing (CAP) evaluation tests conducted by SUS in the pre- and post-pandemic periods, recorded in the DATASUS TabNet system, and thus map the notifications for the CAP test during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19. Methods: The data were extracted from the DATASUS-TabNet platform, referring to the notifications recorded by speech therapy professionals in the aforementioned system. In the data generation, the category "healthcare assistance" was chosen, and the data from outpatient production records (SIASUS) were collected by service location and geographical coverage, referring to the period from January 2019 to December 2022. This is a quantitative, retrospective, and cross-sectional descriptive study. Results: according to the data, it was found that in Brazil, the year 2020 (the critical year of the pandemic) showed a significant drop in the number of records of PAC evaluation tests in the DATASUS system. In comparison with the year 2019, there was a reduction of 11% in the records. On the other hand, there was a 27% increase in the records made between the years 2020 and 2021. With a highlight on the northeastern region, which recorded the highest number of procedures in all analyzed periods. In contrast with the northern region, which recorded the lowest number of entries in the DATASUS system. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant impact on the number of PAC evaluation test records conducted in Brazil, with a sharp decline in records in 2020 compared to 2019. However, the data indicate that the situation stabilized in the following years. However, the possibility of a lack of exam records in the system, which should be done by the professionals conducting the evaluations, as well as the shortage of professionals in each region, must be taken into consideration.