Health Minister encourages Moedas to move forward with decentralization in Lisbon, but to no avail

This Friday, the Minister of Health called on the Lisbon City Council to sign a report on decentralization in health, given that the municipality is already participating, but without funding, in a speech that did not convince the municipal president.

“We really need to move forward with what is missing in the decentralization process in Lisbon, because at the moment decentralization in Lisbon is already underway and it is only underway in the worst possible way. burdens the Lisbon City Council and I want it to continue to move forward, to go deeper, sharing costs more fairly between the central staff and the Lisbon City Council,” said Health Minister Manuel Pizarro at the opening of the Beato Health branch in Lisbon.

Noting that there has been a “very direct” dialogue between the Ministry of Health and the Lisbon City Council, Manuel Pizarro (PS) expressed “absolute confidence” that, as in other municipalities of mainland Portugal, it will also be possible to sign a document on decentralization in the health sector with the municipality Lisbon.

In response to questions from journalists, the President of the Municipality of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas (PSD), defended “going further than decentralization, in which the city council is not just a task, a task of the government,” noting that he agrees with the process of transferring powers from the central administration to local authorities , but subject to the availability of the necessary resources.

“I cannot sign decentralization without having the financial resources to do so, because otherwise it is always the Lisbon taxpayer who pays and that is the function of the central state, it must be the central state that pays and then the chamber does it.” It’s better because we have more proximity, we have more opportunities for execution,” said the Social Democrat.

The Lisbon City Council adopted decentralization in education, recording a “terrible experience”, said Carlos Moedas, explaining that this year’s municipal budget includes 44 million euros that the state transfers to education, but the municipality will spend 60 million euros. million euros, that is, there is a “deficit” of more than 20 million euros.

“In health care, I first want to see what resources the state will transfer, because I cannot live with another “deficit” also in health care, which is not transferred by the central state, and in education what happens is that all the years I have 20 million euros “ deficit”, complained the mayor of Lisbon, also demanding “more control” from the municipality in the strategies of the territories that will be decentralized by the central administration.

The mayor highlighted the work to create a local social state through a number of health measures, namely the Lisbon 65+ health insurance plan, which covers 12 thousand users aged 65 years and over, the provision of free mammograms for all women living in the city, and the implementation of a pilot project for medical and nursing services aimed at the most vulnerable populations in social neighborhoods, which will begin in Marvila, in addition to the response from health centers.

In addition to these measures, the Lisbon City Council is investing in the construction of medical centers, a global investment of 48 million euros, said Carlos Moedas, noting that it includes the Beato Medical Unit, equipment worth 2.6 million euros that will serve about 15 thousand users, which has been operating since August 14, 2023, although the opening took place today.

The Minister of Health praised the municipality’s efforts to build health centers, noting that Beato’s facility is an example of the Generalization Process of Family Health Facility (USF) Type B, in which the activities of specialists are contracted to the government and remuneration is linked to performance.

“We are absolutely convinced that the expansion of family medical institutions, on the one hand, will increase the opportunity for more people to have a family doctor. We estimate that these 222 new Model B USFs will increase healthcare delivery capacity by approximately 250,000 users.” but at the same time they also attract more professionals and are able to retain more professionals,” said Manuel Pizarro.