There is a right to bend the head of storms – The Observer

Our Healthiest Time is a list of hard-to-surrect storms. It is clear that inappropriate policies, a lack of understanding of health structures and the real needs of people, from users to professionals. Storms that were visible so long ago are now difficult to bend. Hospitals with emergencies are closed. Primary health care without complete teams, and lacking doctors, nurses, operational assistants and technical assistants. Teams with open ranges lack equipment and working conditions. Endless waiting lists for specialized appointments and ever-increasing surgical waiting lists, all in a post-pandemic context, where delayed diagnoses increasingly require healthcare professionals and individuals to access healthcare. All this combined with a lack of motivation of professionals who remain resilient, often out of “love of the shirt”, in this failed health system that does not respond to people’s needs, and does not motivate professionals to stay.

For all this, somehow it is necessary to change. Change the system, change the organisation, change the way we take care of each other, change healthcare in Portugal. We need governance, transparency, reality-adjusted health policies, and motivated professionals, with recognized jobs and working conditions that provide access to health for all.

The current state of obstetric services, including emergencies, is a clear and present example, over the years, despite numerous attempts to negotiate with the government and warnings from specialists that we will one day be in the current state of rupture. ignore him. And here we are, in the unacceptable position of a pregnant woman who has the closest emergency labor within a hundred kilometers. In case, in the event of an emergency, we have to go online to consult a portal to know the emergency situation closest to work.

We have a government that is unpredictable even when alerted, and demands an emergency before services and professionals fail.

Such atrocities are unacceptable these days, especially for those, like me, health professionals who have been working exclusively on SNS for two decades. It is unreasonable for our people and families to be harmed in an essential area: health.

For me, as a health professional, but also as someone who takes a liberal view of health (and not only), all the potential and capabilities that exist in society, in terms of health, must be made available and must be made available to women’s needs. people, giving them the freedom to choose between different providers. It is necessary to make the functioning of all health structures effective and, in parallel, to assess the skills of health professionals, their motivation, recognition of their jobs, policies for the modification and retention of professionals, the conception of safe employment in clinical practices, the complexity of care to be provided and the specialized function of each area of ​​care .

I would even venture to say that we should reverse the way SNS is organized, as I think the priorities are reversed. I think the SNS should focus on primary health care, where we, the health professionals, monitor, promote and protect people’s health, ensuring that they stay healthy. This perspective and the work of the SNS will make it possible to avoid emergencies, avoiding late and more painful treatments. It will allow people a better quality of life, savings for the state (for us taxpayers) and something important also, fewer people who are unable to work and dependent on the state, people who are able to realize their dreams and projects.

From this perspective, hospital care should be used when the clinical situation requires it and, in most cases, after people have gone through primary health care. In short, health should be close to people, and it should be a valid tool, easy to access and use for those who need it, proactively or reactively. And we all need it, and we cannot forget that the state must guarantee access and equality in health, and this is the path taken by some political forces, such as the liberal initiative, with their proposals. Detailing between the public, social and private in health, in order to expand the view of health to people, at a time of very scarcity, causing agony to all. It is not an ideological whim, nor a temporary necessity, but something fundamental.

To give people hope, the head of storms in health must be overcome. There must be no capacity and health to multiply it.