Direito à saúde e judicialização de medicamentos: a experiência de Niterói

• Autor(a) principal: Barreira, Sandra Cristina de Faria
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UERJ
• Texto Completo: http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/handle/1/4112
• topic: Judicialization of health; Lawsuits; Pharmaceutical care; Medicines; Niterói; Judicialização da saúde; Demandas judiciais; Assistência farmacêutica; Medicamentos; Niterói; CNPQ::CIENCIAS DA SAUDE::SAUDE COLETIVA

This study aimed to know the lawsuits related to obtaining medicines in the city of Niterói in 2010 and the strategies developed by the local administration to deal with this problem. An exploratory descriptive study, with qualitative and quantitative approach, was conducted and followed two complementary methodological approaches: (1) survey and analysis of lawsuits to obtain registered medicines at the Legal Advisory Board of Municipal Health Foundation from January to December 2010; and (2) interviews with 11 professionals and managers involved with the flow of litigation service in this municipality. Of the 123 lawsuits against the Municipal Health Foundation to obtain products and health procedures in 2010, 98 (80.3%) sought to obtain medicines, corresponding to 342 requested medicines and 182 different drugs. Considering the frequency of actions, the following medicines stood out: losartan-K, simvastatin, aspirin, furosemide and metformin hydrochloride, used for health problems of high prevalence in the population and often seen in primary care. It should be noted that 48,6% of medicines requested were part of some kind of official list, indicating possible problems with the management of pharmaceutical services in the municipality. The reports of the respondents pointed out, among other things: (a) major difficulties in managing the local Pharmaceutical Care, where the shortage of the network and financial and budgetary constraints coexist, as elements that help to aggravate the situation studied; (b) problems in service to users by means of administrative procedures that, designed to facilitate user access to medicines not available in the network, originate lawsuits; (c) need for greater involvement of managers in finding solutions through joint institutions. Access to medicines through the courts has contributed to the diversion of resources in primary care, as well as other municipal accounts, through fines and blocks determined by the Judiciary as a result of on-compliance with court orders in a timely manner. The phenomenon of judicialization of medicines is a problem that can hardly be solved in a short time and possible abuses involving this phenomenon should be identified and addressed rigorously. However, the Government, through the various levels of government, must provide the population with effective means of access to necessary and appropriate medicines to patients. Only this way lawsuits can be reduced, without jeopardizing the constitutional right to health.