Atuação do Núcleo de Apoio à Procuradoria Adjunta de Suporte à Saúde no município de Três Rios-RJ: uma estratégia na abordagem da judicialização da saúde

Abstract

The phenomenon of health judicialization is a growing reality in Brazil, especially in municipalities, resulting in disruption in planning and budget execution. This is a case study with a qualitative-quantitative approach conducted in Três Rios, a medium-sized municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro, which began in 2009 with the implementation of the Supportive Deputy Prosecutor's Office for Health (NAPASS) and the restructuring of Pharmaceutical Assistance in the local Unified Health System (SUS) to address the intense judicialization of health. The main objective of the research was to analyze the role of this Supportive Deputy Prosecutor's Office as a strategy in addressing health judicialization and to describe the other synergistically implemented strategies by the municipal management between 2008 and 2021. The results of these implemented strategies allowed for the observation of a significant reduction in lawsuits filed against the municipality in the first year of the new administration and a substantial extrajudicial resolution of demands originating from the Public Defender's Office of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Areas for improvement and progress were also identified based on an analysis of the positive and negative factors in addressing health judicialization from the perspective of SWOT analysis. Positive factors included the appreciation of interinstitutional and intersectoral dialogue with the actors involved in health judicialization, a multidisciplinary and skilled health technical team working in collaboration with the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Health (PASS), and the dissemination of the Municipal Essential Medicines List to prescribers. The research suggests that the strategy used can be replicated in other medium-sized municipalities in addressing health judicialization in the country.