The PSD called on the Minister of Health to present immediate answers in Parliament this Friday to “stop the bleeding” that it believes is happening in the SNS, in the last debate on the topic before the dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic.
The Social Democrats have scheduled a (mandatory) protest debate over the National Health Service (NHS) for this Friday in the Assembly of the Republic, some three months after holding an urgent debate on the same topic.
“Every day, services in the SNS are depleted and it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to access the SNS, emergency services, primary health care, family doctors, consultations, surgeries,” explained Vice President, PSD Collegium President Miguel Santos.
With the Assembly of the Republic dissolved on January 15 and early legislative elections scheduled for March 10, this “will likely be the last debate on this topic in Parliament.”
“The SDP therefore calls on the government to take a stand in this debate. We hope that the minister [Manuel Pizarro] “may still appear and take the opportunity to explain what he is doing to stop this harsh reality facing the Portuguese,” he said.
Contacted by Lusa, the parliamentary affairs minister’s office said the government would not have a representative in the debate.
As for the SDP, “it is necessary to find immediate solutions that will stop this bleeding that is happening” in the SNA, calling on the government to present “temporary solutions while it is still in power.”
“After the next elections there will come a point when the SDP as a government will impose social service reform that will improve people’s access to healthcare,” he said.
Asked whether the debate would be an opportunity for the PSD to present its alternative vision for the health sector, Miguel Santos said the party would first carry out an “assessment of the catastrophic state in which the social network finds itself.”
“The time will come when the PSD will present an electoral program and measures to restore the social network and a vision of the Portuguese health system as a partnership between the different resources available to the country,” he assured.
The SDP deputy recalled that the Social Democrats have already submitted to parliament “dozens of proposals” in the field of health care, which were rejected in parliament.
“The PS did not want to use the ideas of the SDP, but they are neither strange nor unknown, and they will not appear in the election program as something new, people know how the SDP sector sees its health,” he noted.
In July, PSD presented a document called the “Mobilization Agenda 2030-2040”, which includes five strategic axes and 25 structural proposals for changing the health sector in Portugal.
On this occasion, PSD President Luís Montenegro expressed his ambition to place the Portuguese health system among the top ten in the world by 2040, making a “radical break with the statist and centralist vision” of the PS government.
Among the proposals that the Social Democrats consider structural and aimed at “a deep transformation of the social network into a real national health care system,” for example, a multi-year health care budget, annual “surveys” “with complete freedom of action.” choice for every citizen in the public, private or social sectors,” a digital family doctor for three million Portuguese, or the optional extension of the ADSE health subsystem to other population groups besides civil servants.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal

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