Special Requests Analysis Committee: a key initiative in the context of health judicialization

Abstract

To describe and analyze the work of a Special Commission, which technically evaluates litigations in a municipality in the regional area of São Paulo, in Brazil. Qualitative study, in which seven semi-structured interviews were carried out following the snowball technique. The discursive data was analyzed taking as reference some elements of the thematic analysis. The members of the Special Commission interviewed, answered questions related to four pre-established thematic axes: the work experience in the judicialization, the health-disease process, the responsibility of the health system regarding the user's well-being, and the right to health. In the first axis, they shared their work routine, exposed the tools they use to issue technical opinions, and recognized the relevance of the Commission to qualify the demands, rationalize public spending and approximate the areas of Health and Law. In the second axis, they highlighted the association between several constraints and determinants to be healthy or to develop a disease. In the third, they emphasized the relevance of integral care to promote well-being and reduce worsening. In the fourth, they affirmed that the right to health is not restricted to access to health care, but to the individual and collective elements that conform people, families and communities, and that the realization of the right to health is not a unilateral process. According to the empirical material, recognizing the different issues, perspectives, conditions and opinions related to the judicialization can help in its global comprehension and offer more just and rational possibilities for the realization of the right to health through the judicial process.