From 2023 to 2024, the country registered a 506% growth in lawsuits related to damage caused by health failures
Brazil registered a 158% increase in the number of legal proceedings related to medical errors From 2020 to 2024. Data from (National Council of Justice) show that from 2023 to 2024, the growth was even more pronounced, up 506%. Last year, 74,358 new shares were registered, compared to 12,268 in the previous year.
These processes involve issues such as moral and material damage, terms used by the judiciary to classify problems in the provision of health services.
The country also accumulates 139,079 trial pending cases by 2024, an increase of 80.5% compared to 77,052 cases pending in 2020, according to data from the CNJ statistics panel.
Understand the term
In 2023, the CNJ A (Unified Procedural Table), which organizes the topics in the judiciary. From this change, the cases framed before as “Medical error” were reclassified as “Material and/or moral damages resulting from the provision of health services”, whether in the public or private sector.
“This amendment is in accordance with what is established by the Federal Constitution, in its articles 5 (items v and x), 37, § 6, and also by the Civil Code, which covers Articles 927, 944 to 954, in addition to Article 5, X of the CF, and Articles 186, 927, 944 and 953, sole paragraph.”said the CNJ in a note sent to Poder360.
The change was requested by the CBC (Brazilian College of Surgeons), with the support of (Federal Council of Medicine). The entities stated that the previous version of the table ranked certain topics as “Medical error”which, according to them, conveyed a negative connotation to the medical class.
