Access to health and social protection policies by homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods case study on tailored inter-sector care during a health emergency.

Introduction: The article analyzed homeless people's (HP) access to health and social protection policies and tailored inter-sector care, including emergency measures, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Belo Horizonte (BH), capital of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. It intended to provide data on HP and evaluate existing public policies focused on vulnerable populations during this health emergency. Methods: The study adopted a mixed-methods design with triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data. Results: Social cartography showed that in the early months of the pandemic, the health administration had difficulty reordering the health system, which experienced constant updates in the protocols but was nevertheless consolidated over the months. The evidence collected in the study showed that important emergency interventions in the municipality of BH involved activities that facilitated access by HP to the supply of services. Discussion: The existence of national guidelines for inter-sector care for HP cannot be ruled out as a positive influence, although the municipalities are responsible for their implementation. Significantly, a health emergency was necessary to intensify the relationship between health and social protection services. Roving services were among those with the greatest positive evidence, with the least need for infrastructure to be replicated at the local level. In addition, the temporary supply of various inter-sector services, simultaneously with the provision of day shelters by organized civil society, was considered a key factor for expanding and intensifying networks of care for HP during the emergency phase. A plan exists to continue and expand this model in the future. The study concluded that understanding the inter-sector variables that impact HP contributes to better targeting of investments in interventions that work at the root causes of these issues or that increase the effectiveness of health and social protection systems.

Desafios e possibilidades da jurimetria na judicialização em saúde: uma investigação em Minas Gerais do período 2014 a 2020 / Challenges and possibilities of jurimetry in health judicialization: an investigation in Minas Gerais state from 2014 2020 / Desafíos y posibilidades de la jurimetría en la judicialización de la salud: una investigación en Minas Gerais de 2014 a 2020

Objetivo: analisar os processos de saúde, de medicamentos e de medicamentos antineoplásicos em Minas Gerais, em 2014 a 2020, a partir da comparação de diferentes bases de dados. Metodologia: foram utilizadas técnicas de pareamento de bases de dados entre os processos existentes no Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de Minas Gerais e os processos recebidos pela Secretaria Estadual de Saúde de Minas Gerais, descreveram-se as dificuldades encontradas na identificação e quantificação desses processos, e os resultados encontrados foram comparados com informações provenientes de outras fontes. Resultados: nas bases do Tribunal de Justiça de Minas Gerais foram identificados 564.763 processos de saúde. Houve um aumento significativo do número de processos até 2017 e uma estabilização, em patamares altos, a partir de 2017. Ao comparar com os resultados obtidos pelo Instituto Superior de Ensino e Pesquisa e pelo Laboratório de Inovação, Inteligência e Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, houve uma importante divergência nos números de processos. Tomando como exemplo a judicialização de saúde contra o estado de Minas Gerais, não foi possível encontrar de forma direta todos os processos recebidos pela Secretaria Estadual de Saúde de Minas Gerais nas diversas bases fornecidas pelo Tribunal de Justiça de Minas Gerais, tendo sido necessária uma integração entre as diferentes bases de dados e uma busca adicional para identificar todos os processos. Conclusão: recomendam-se a padronização e organização dos dados dos processos judiciais em saúde, já na entrada de dados, para facilitar a realização de estudos quantitativos sobre a judicialização da saúde.

Objective: to analyze the health, drug, and antineoplastic drug lawsuits in Minas Gerais, in 2014 to 2020, from the comparison of different databases. Methodology: database pairing techniques were used to link lawsuits from the Minas Gerais State Court of Justice with the processes received by the Minas Gerais Health State Department, the difficulties encountered in identifying and quantifying these processes were described, and the results found were compared with information from other sources. Results: in the Minas Gerais State Court of Justice databases, 564,763 health lawsuits were identified in the studied period. There was a significant increase in the number of processes until 2017 and a stabilization, at high levels, from 2017 onwards. In comparison with the results obtained by the Institute of Higher Education and Research and the Laboratory of Innovation, Intelligence and Sustainable Development Goals there was a great divergence in the number of processes found. Conclusion: taking the health judicialization against Minas Gerais state as an example, it was not possible to directly find all the processes received by Minas Gerais Health State Department in the various databases provided by the Minas Gerais State Court of Justice, requiring integration between the different databases and an additional search to identify all processes.

Objetivo: analizar los juicios de salud, drogas y medicamentos antineoplásicos en Minas Gerais, en 2014 a 2020, a partir de la comparación de diferentes bases de datos. Metodología: técnicas de emparejamiento de bases de datos fueron utilizadas para vincular los juicios existentes en el Tribunal de Justicia del Estado de Minas Gerais con los procesos recibidos por la Secretaría de Estado de Salud de Minas Gerais, las dificultades encontradas en la identificación y cuantificación de esos procesos fueron descritas, y los resultados encontrados fueron comparados con informaciones de otras fuentes. Resultados: en las bases del Tribunal de Justicia del Estado de Minas Gerais se identificaron 564.763 procesos de salud. Hubo un aumento significativo en el número de procesos hasta 2017 y una estabilización, en niveles altos, a partir de 2017. Sin embargo, al comparar con los resultados obtenidos por el Instituto Superior de Educación e Investigación y por el Laboratorio de Innovación, Inteligencia y Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible hubo una divergencia importante en el número de procesos. Conclusión: tomando como ejemplo la judicialización de la salud contra el estado de Minas Gerais, no era posible encontrar directamente todos los procesos recibidos por la Secretaría de Estado de Salud de Minas Gerais en las diversas bases de datos proporcionadas por el Tribunal de Justicia del Estado de Minas Gerais, lo que requería una integración entre las diferentes bases de datos y una búsqueda adicional a identificar todos los procesos.

Health litigation and cancer survival in patients treated in the public health system in a large Brazilian city, 2014-2019.

BACKGROUND: Litigation for health care, also known as health judicialization, is frequent in Brazil. It involves recourse to the court system to access health services. The study aimed to evaluate whether cancer patients in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, increased their overall survival by increasing access to certain drugs or treatments through litigation, controlling for the effect of demographic and disease-related variables. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Patients with breast, prostate, brain, lung, or colon cancers from 2014 to 2019 were included. Survival analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: In the multivariate analysis, litigation was significantly associated with increased survival in cancers of breast (HR = 0.51, 95%CI 0.33-0.80), prostate (HR = 0.50, 95%CI 0.30-0.85), colon (HR = 0.59, 95%CI 0.38-0.93), and lung (HR = 0.36, 95%CI 0.22-0.60). Five-year survival rates of patients who sued for treatment were 97.8%, 88.7%, 59.3%, and 26.0%, compared to median survival of 95.7%, 78.7%, 41.2%, and 2.4%, respectively, among patient that did not resort to court action. The study suggests that litigation for access to cancer treatment may represent a step forward in obtaining more effective treatment. This study´s main limitations are the lack of patients´ clinical information for use as control variables and the lack of variables to assess patients´ quality of life. The study also found that many cases involved claims that could have been solved by administrative rather than legal action. Some claims thus reflect the lack of adequate administrative procedures. CONCLUSION: When based on scientific evidence, access to new therapies, combined with other technologies already available, can favor patient survival. Access to new therapies through litigation may increase health inequalities since low-income patients have limited access to legal recourse against the State to meet their needs. The timely approval of new effective therapies can mitigate the judicialization of cancer treatment.

[Corrected estimates of femicides in Brazil, 2009 to 2011]. / Estimativas corrigidas de feminicídios no Brasil, 2009 a 2011.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the corrected femicide rates and to describe the characteristics of these deaths in Brazil during the 2009-2011 triennium. METHODS: A descriptive study was performed with data from the Brazilian Mortality Information System. Femicides were defined as all female deaths classified in the Assault chapter of ICD-10 (X85-Y09). These data underwent two correction procedures: proportional redistribution of events of undetermined intent (Y10-Y34) and application of correction factors for mortality rates previously described in the literature. RESULTS: During the period analyzed, 13 071 femicides were recorded in the Mortality Information System. After the first correction procedure, 17 167 femicides were estimated, corresponding to a death rate of 5.86 per 100 000 women. Higher femicide rates were recorded in the Northeast, Midwest and North regions of Brazil (6.93, 6.88 and 6.43 deaths per 100 000 women respectively) vs. 5.07 and 5.09 per 100 000 women in the South and Southeast respectively. Of the victims, 29.7% were between 20 and 29 years of age and 60.9% were black. Among women aged 15 years or older, 48% had schooling of not more than 8 years. Fire guns were used in 50.2% of deaths; 27.6% of deaths took place in the household; and 35.1% took place on weekends. CONCLUSIONS: Femicide death rates were high and support the need for correction to reduce underestimation. The victims were women of all age groups, ethnicities, and schooling levels. However, most victims were young, black, with low schooling, living in the Northeast, Midwest, and North of Brazil.