The health minister today announced the dissolution of waiting lists for cancer surgeries that had exceeded the maximum recommended period, and accused anyone who says emergency procedures were not being adhered to of “bad faith.”
At the end of a visit to the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, accompanied by the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, Health Minister Ana Paula Martins said that on April 30, the waiting list had reached 9,374 cancer patients, and that about 20,000 patients had undergone surgery in four months.
“In four months, how can we not be grateful to our health workers?” the minister stressed, adding that more than 99% of surgeries were performed in the National Health Service (SNS). The minister stressed that he had “succeeded for the first time” in eliminating the waiting list of cancer patients waiting for surgery beyond the recommended time at Santa Maria Hospital.
He explained that at Santa Maria Hospital, all cancer patients above the maximum guaranteed response time “are either undergoing surgery or scheduled.”
The OncoStop programme, which provides for the regularisation of waiting lists for oncology surgery, is one of the urgent measures of the Health Emergency and Transformation Plan, which integrates 54 measures – urgent, priority and structural -, with the aim of ensuring access to health care adapted to the needs of the population.
Adherence to emergency measures has been in the news in recent days, highlighting the poor implementation of the emergency plan, but today the minister rejected the criticism, saying the measures were “on the ground”. “Only because of ignorance and bad faith can they say that they are not being implemented at the expected time,” Ana Paula Martins said.
Regarding the dedicated line for pregnant women on SNS24, “another example of success”, the Minister of Health said that the service had already been provided to more than 19,000 pregnant women since June 1. “A year ago, these 19,000 women went from maternity ward to maternity ward looking for an open door,” he said.
Ana Paula Martins acknowledged that there were “big challenges” but said she was convinced that with the support of the technical teams, emergency closures would not occur next summer.
“We did not come here today to say that the work is finished, quite the opposite. But we are committed and we will continue,” the minister added, recalling that “hundreds of contracts” have been signed to rehabilitate health centres and hospitals (about 500 across the country).
“There are very serious problems to be solved, we have already solved some serious situations (…) Give us time to do the rest,” he asked.
Meanwhile, the president of the Santa Maria Hospital Board of Directors, Carlos Martins, said that the new installations of the gynecology and obstetrics emergency department and the Luis Mendes da Graça maternity hospital had been completed, at the “end of September.” The hospital expects to deliver 3,000 babies in 2025.
Referring to the opening of the first clinical services centre in Sete Rios, Lisbon, on August 1, the person in charge said that the average waiting time for the 256 appointments in the first seven days was 10 minutes.
Carlos Martins also said the hospital plans to make 110 new appointments in 30 specialties by the end of the year, having signed 10 contracts with young doctors today.
