Health minister says he’s cool with World Youth Day device

The health minister said this Wednesday that he was taking it easy on the device set up for World Youth Day (WYD), noting that days already spent in other countries “always went well” without any increase in the flow to health services.

“We have a good system, very reliable, a first level system that includes, among other things, the establishment of two field hospitals,” said Manuel Pizarro in the parliamentary health committee in response to questions asked by an MP. liberal Joana Cordeiro.

The deputy asked the minister if, with a shortage of doctors, he manages to guarantee an adequate response to health problems that may arise during World Youth Day 2023, which will be held from August 1 to 6 with the participation of about 1.5 million people. .

“A doctor will never say that he is absolutely calm on any issue. It doesn’t happen,” but, the minister said, “I’m fine with the device we’ve installed to respond to problems. from day to day – day, what will be.

Manuel Pizarro stated that if they were based solely on the international experience of this Catholic event, then there would be no need to organize any receptions.

“Great World Youth Days always pass without any increased influx into the health services, which, however, is visible,” because, he argued, “there are a lot of people, but they are, in fact, relatively young, with good conditions.” health.”

According to the minister, the complications that usually arise are “some kind of gastroenteritis associated with food, this or that virus, this or that foot sprain or wound on the foot.”

“Why do we have a much more complex device than this? Because we cannot guarantee that there will not be any accident, any incident, any violation that will have a greater impact, ”he said.

As to whether healthcare workers need to change their leave to increase WYD support, he said he could not guarantee that “there were no changes in leave schedules in any given hospital to ensure second-line gains,” but he assured that there was significant point of view, this did not happen.

At the hearing, the minister was also questioned by PSD MP Rui Cristina about the creation of Model C Family Health Units (USFs), which provides for physician “cooperatives” to provide services in areas not covered by traditional USFs, which is a measure. he rejected.

“We see that even in the efforts to conclude direct contracts with the social sector that we have made in many municipalities in the area of ​​Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, we no longer have the opportunity to respond in the social sector due to the lack of specialists in general medicine , and in this context, we are convinced (…) that the most we could achieve is for some SNS doctors to leave SNS to go through USF Model C, but the number of people served was the same, ”emphasized He.

The minister noted that he “had no ideological bias against USF Model C”, but, he emphasized, “we are not going to make USF Model C to feed the ideological prejudices of the right regarding health care”, and the decisive answer was to generalize the USF Model B.

Regarding the charter of the Executive Board of the National Health Service (DE-SNS), he acknowledged that the goal of completing them by the end of the first half of the year would be pushed back, but he stressed: “If [a DE-SNS] is already doing what it does before the charter, just imagine when the charters are approved.”

As for the Integrated Responsibility Centers (CRIs) – intermediate management structures dependent on hospital boards – that the government wants to generalize, he said the experience of the 40 CRIs already in place is “very positive”.