Unidade de Pronto Atendimento
Unidade de Pronto Atendimento (English: Emergency Care Unit), abbreviated UPA or UPA 24h, is a type of health center that can be found in many cities in Brazil. They are responsible for providing medium complexity health care, forming a network organized in conjunction with primary care and hospital care. The units also have the purpose of reducing the queues in hospital emergency rooms, avoiding that less complex cases are transferred directly to the hospitals, as well as increasing the service capacity of the Unified Health System (SUS).