OBJECTIVE: To measure the number of Speech and Hearing Therapists (SHTs) registered in the CNES (Brazil's National Register of Health Facilities) and DATASUS databases, which are public and private health databases, respectively, by counting the number of professionals in each region. CASE REPORT: According to the July 2013 data from CNES, there are 16.617 SHTs in Brazil distributed across 26 states. There are 3065 professionals in the north, 3065 in the northeast, 1254 in the mid-west, 8954 in the southeast (with São Paulo alone having 4902 registered professionals), and 2582 in the south. The southeast region thus has of the most SHTs and the north the least. CONCLUSION: Despite differences in the number of people living in each region in Brazil, there is clear evidence of a disparity in access to speech and hearing services between different locations. The provision of more SHTs in areas where there are few professionals is a fundamental requirement for decentralization, and it is a national challenge.
