Organization of public entities to attend to the judicialization of access to medications in the state of santa catarina, Brazil

Abstract

This study describes the organization of the State of Santa Catarina (SC), Brazil, to attend to the judicialization of access to medications from the early 2000s to 2018. Document analysis and in-terviews with representatives of the Executive, the Judiciary, the State Attorney General Office (PGE, Procuradoria Geral do Estado/SC), the Public De-fender’s Office of the State of SC and the Public Pro-secutor’s Office of the State of SC (MPSC, Ministé-rio Público de SC) were performed. The Judiciary, the PGE/SC and the MPSC organized themselves to address the phenomenon. Initially, the State Health Secretariat did not have an organization to attend to the judicialization; with the increase in the number of lawsuits, it created sectors, routines and systems, and at the end of 2018 there was a specific Administrative Management and sector. The main measures used were: public hearing of the Federal Supreme Court, statements by the National Justice Council, Incident of Resolution of Repetitive De-mands, State Monitoring and Resolution Commit-tee for Health Care Demands in SC, Center for Repetitive Actions in Health Care, Multidisciplinary Judicial Support Commission and the Technical Support Center. The judicialization of access to medications in SC has not yet been resolved, since all the implemented measures have not prevented the increasing rise in expenses with lawsuits.