Pará is a national reference in the care of patients with cleft lip and palate
State resolution of 2024 structured decentralized, humanized, and multiprofessional care in different regions of the State
The comprehensive care for people with cleft lip and palate is already a consolidated reality in Pará. Still in 2024, the State Department of Public Health (Sespa) published Resolution No. 117/2024, which officially established the flow of care and the line of care for these patients. The measure strengthened the decentralization of services and ensured specialized and multiprofessional support in different regions of the State, bringing care closer to the families of Pará.
For the state coordinator of Oral Health, Alessandra Amaral, the care for cleft patients represents more than a technical advance. “Ensuring comprehensive care for cleft patients is more than a health action; it is a demonstration of respect for the dignity of these people. We work to ensure not only access to surgery but to an entire process that involves welcoming, listening, dentistry, speech therapy, nutrition, and psychological support. This is real care,” says Alessandra Amaral.
Tuning - The state policy is in tune with the new national guideline, recently launched by the Ministry of Health, reinforcing the shared commitment to the advancement of specialized care. In Pará, the care network has already been consolidated through units such as the Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Pará Foundation (FSCMP), a reference accredited since 2018, in addition to the regional hospitals of Santarém (HRBA), Southeast Pará (HRSP) in Marabá, and Araguaia in Redenção, all capable of performing surgeries and monitoring cases with specialized teams.
According to the State Secretary of Public Health, Ivete Gadelha Vaz, “since last year we have been able to implement a structured flow, with care in strategic regions, and this brings us today the satisfaction of seeing our work recognized nationally. We are very happy to contribute to this collective advancement and to the care of these children and their families.”
Humanized care - Another important differential is the partnership of Sespa with the Sorriso Legal Institute, which has been caring for patients with cleft lip and palate for over 30 years. Through this integrated action, Pará was selected among the five finalists of a national award that recognizes good practices in the SUS (Unified Health System), highlighting humanized and excellent care.
In 2024, Sespa performed 608 surgeries to correct cleft lip and palate in the state network. In 2025, about 200 procedures have already been recorded, all made possible from the initial care in the municipal health network. Patients with suspected or diagnosed clefts undergo evaluation in basic health units in their own municipality. From this screening, they are referred to accredited reference services in the State. In these units, care is provided by multiprofessional teams with integrated action, involving plastic surgery, dentistry, speech therapy, nutrition, and psychological support, ensuring comprehensive and humanized follow-up at all stages of treatment.
Diagnosis - Cleft lip and palate are congenital malformations that can affect the lip, the palate (roof of the mouth), or both, impacting speech, feeding, and self-esteem. Diagnosis can be made during pregnancy, and appropriate treatment involves multiprofessional teams working continuously and integratively.
With organization, commitment, and sensitivity, Sespa reaffirms its leading role in building an increasingly inclusive, regionalized, and humanized public health network.
