“We urgently need change safely and calmly to solve the problems and save the NHS.” The words are from Hugo Soares, president of the Democratic Alliance (AD) list in the Assembly of the Republic of Braga, who devoted Wednesday to the “health crisis”, with visits to the health units of the SNS in the region.
Hugo Soares, after leaving a meeting with officials of the recently created ULS Local Health Unit of Braga, highlighted the priority need to “resolve delays in consultations, surgeries and family medicine”, and also showed particular concern for mothers who, at the time of birth, do not The emergency obstetrics service remains closed.
“In the Democratic Alliance, we do not have an ideological complex between public and private. Our ideology is the people… solving people’s problems,” declared the Secretary General of the General Directorate of Public Security.
Although he expressed “some hope” that the chaotic situation in health could be reversed, Hugo Soares did not fail to warn of “the effects of the decisive diagnosis on the current situation of the sector, as evidenced by the most diverse indicators.”
“The inability of the Ministry of Health to recruit and retain more doctors” and the dissatisfaction of health professionals – which has led to successive strikes – are at the root of some of the problems, as well as “the limitations and difficulties caused by the Ministry of Finance”. “Who wants everything to be controlled.”
'A catastrophic balance'
Regarding the operation of the hospital in Braga, Hugo Soares rejected further evidence of a lack of public investment by the Socialist Party government, especially by the Ministry of Health. Lack of physical space is one of the huge limitations of the Braga Unit and 32% of surgeries require being performed in private institutions.
The leader of the Christian Democratic Alliance candidate therefore urged the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, to “urgently send” “even before the elections, the process regarding the land located in the Sete Fontes area,” in order to also solve the accessibility problem. “.
The tour of candidates for the position of deputy ADs in health units includes actions in hospitals in Guimarães, Vila Nova de Famalicao and Barcelos – which are still awaiting the construction of a new structure.
The results of the eight years of Socialist Party rule “could not have been more disastrous.” As Hugo Soares reiterates, “The health crisis has reached unimaginable levels. “No one can accept that Portugal is regressing in a priority area such as health.”
Clinically recommended times for surgery are “exceeded in many NHS hospitals, even in people with cancer and other serious illnesses”. At the end of 2023, “1.7 million Portuguese did not have a family doctor and the family nurse had not taken off.”
“Portuguese pay directly out of pocket more than 35% of annual health expenditures, in addition to taxes imposed on financing the health care system, but more than 3.1 million Portuguese currently choose health insurance to achieve freedom of choice and rapid response from health care,” the providers said.
“In the past eight years, not a single public hospital has been built. In contrast, 32 private hospitals have been built. Never before have so many Portuguese had access to health insurance, because they cannot rely on the public service that the Socialist Party has destroyed.”
He added that the situation generates “stark inequalities in access to healthcare in Portugal, with growing inequalities between poor and rich, between the coast and the interior, between urban, suburban and rural areas.”
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