Ambulances and private hospitals will be able to hand over cancer patients and licenses

Hospital emergency departments and the private sector will be able to take in the injured, and some cancer licenses could be extended up to three months, the National Health Service (SNS) chief executive announced this Friday.

In an interview with the Expresso newspaper six months after taking office, Fernando Araujo said steps would be taken to reduce bureaucracy in primary health care.

The Executive Director recalled that the first was a self-declaration of illness for three days, which has already been implemented.

“Secondly, it will be possible to receive victims in emergency services, which was prohibited by law. not let the patient leave his leg, go home, and then you have to go to the family doctor so that someone gives you an extract, ”he added.

The official also stressed that it would be possible to take sick leave in the private sector, which was also banned, adding that the measures are expected to become “a reality this year.”

Fernando Araujo also suggested that another measure would be for some victims of illnesses such as cancer to be extended to three months.

“The goal is that patients do not have to go to the family doctor every month to extend their vacation. We are currently also working on medical certificates for obtaining a driver’s license. one in Alto Miño,” he said.

Fernando Araujo explained that instead of the patient going to the family doctor, a place will be allocated for this purpose at the local health posts.

In the interview, the official also spoke about two measures related to pharmacies.

“We have a hell of a lot of paperwork in Portugal. I want to take it all away. The pharmacy chain has a huge capillarity in the country. Therefore, the first measure concerns chronic medicines, and I hope that this will be launched in August or September: if a family doctor marks a certain medicine as chronic, for example, for a disease such as diabetes or hypertension, the patient will no longer need to go to the doctor every month or every three months to get prescriptions. him the number of suitable boxes for this month, near the house, and sometimes on the same street,” he said.

The Executive Director of the SNA also said that next winter it is expected that pharmacies will be able to vaccinate people over 65 against influenza and covid in conjunction with polyclinics.

“We want them to become vaccination points. Due to age, the user will not need a doctor’s prescription or a trip to the family doctor. He will only present a citizen’s card,” he stressed.

In an interview, Fernando Araujo also ensured that maternity hospitals would not close in the summer, noting that if necessary, private hospitals would be activated by additional logic.

“Since January, we started thinking about summer, and in this case there were two large maternity hospitals that we had to close for work – the maternity hospital in Centro Hospitalar do Oeste and the one in the north of Lisbon (Santa Maria), the latter are completely different and that have never been worked on since 60 years ago. Most importantly, the teams were available to work in other places, from the West to Leiria, for example, where there was no legal regime obliging them to do so,” he said.

When asked if he could guarantee that the blocks would not close, Fernando Araujo replied: “Yes. That’s something we can rule out.”

“However, it was important for us to add a layer of security if necessary. Therefore, we have discussed with the private sector the possibility of following the process always in additional logic. They will only be activated when and if the system is somehow saturated. INEM will assess the situation from a medical point of view and if the maternity wards cannot take anyone else, they will call one of the private ones,” he said.

The official added that hospitals in Luz, CUF and Luciadas have voluntarily joined the process, and the additions were signed off last week.