Brazil’s Health Ministry introduces an integrated care pathway for chronic kidney disease patients amid a sharp increase in dialysis cases, aiming to accelerate treatment and improve access for vulnerable populations.
Brazil’s public health system will now route chronic kidney disease patients through a single integrated care pathway, from diagnosis to dialysis, in a move the Health Ministry says is intended to speed up treatment and reduce fragmented referrals.
The change was announced on Thursday at a nephrology congress in Belo Horizonte and comes as Brazil records a sharp rise in dialysis cases. Data cited by the Brazilian Association of Dialysis and Transplant Centres show the number of patients on dialysis increased 9.2% in one year, from 156,473 in December 2024 to 170,868 in December 2025. Diabetes remains the leading cause of kidney failure in the country, accounting for about a third of cases.
Under the new model, called Integrated Care Provision, patients will no longer have to navigate separate queues for different parts of the process. Mozart Sales, the Health Ministry’s secretary for specialised care, said the aim was to connect consultations, tests and procedures in a single line of care according to the stage of the disease. Speaking to Folha de S.Paulo, Sales said the ministry expects the new approach to expand nephrology care capacity for SUS patients by between 160% and 260%.
The ministry said the reform is part of its wider Agora Tem Especialistas programme. It also said that, between January 2025 and August 2026, 25 new haemodialysis sites, four peritoneal dialysis services and 33 pre-dialysis points were opened. The ministry has already approved clinical guidelines for chronic kidney disease, issued in September 2024, to standardise diagnosis, treatment and monitoring across the public system.
Chronic kidney disease is a progressive loss of kidney function that can eventually require dialysis, which replaces part of the kidneys’ filtering role. In its most common form, blood is filtered by a machine in sessions that usually last about four hours, three times a week, making access especially difficult for poorer patients with long journeys, transport costs and work constraints. A recent review in Kidney Diseases said Brazil still faces major gaps in diagnosis and treatment, while analysis in the Brazilian Journal of Nephrology found that SUS coverage for some kidney-related procedures remains uneven. Separately, studies in BMC Nephrology have highlighted the burden of the disease in both private and nationally sampled populations.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
