“The country must understand why so many people are dying”: Luis Montenegro on SNS response capabilities

The President of the SDP met this Friday with the new President of the Order of Nurses Luis Filipe Barreira.

At the end of the meeting, Luis Montenegro, speaking to reporters, criticized the current response capacity of the National Health Service (NHS), calling it “weak”. “The country must understand why so many people are dying in Portugal. We cannot minimize such a number of deaths,” the politician said.

“Something is happening in the delivery of health care in this sad reality,” he added.

To recap, Portugal recorded 5,542 deaths in the first two weeks of January 2024, marking the start of a year in which more people have died since 2021, during the worst phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, according to official data.

Luis Montenegro emphasized the importance of nurses in the healthcare sector. He believes the failure to respond is due to the current government’s difficulties in analyzing and managing the system’s problems.

According to the SDP president, “the state must guarantee access to healthcare.” It is necessary to focus on disease prevention and the well-being of citizens, concerns that the party “wants to include in the election program.”

The PSD president reiterated his commitment that if he wins the March 10 legislative elections, “on the first day” of his government “he will present an emergency program to put an end to what is happening in emergency departments and in hospitals.” waiting time for consultations and operations.”

On this occasion, Montenegro did not want to dwell on other issues, namely the absence of Pedro Passos Coelho at the congress that the Democratic Alliance (AD) coalition will hold next Sunday, but at which former Deputy Prime Minister and former CDS-PP Leader Paulo Portas .

“We will have many opportunities to have days of interaction with the Portuguese, Sunday is one of them, we will have others and we will present our main characters on each of the days depending on our intentions,” he said, believing that “this not a question that concerns the Portuguese who will or will not participate in this AD initiative.

Regarding health care, the SDP leader once again accused the government of having an ideological view of the sector, countering that for the future AD leader, providing health care “will not even be an ideological option, it is the responsibility of the state.”

“The government, which has campaigned so hard in recent weeks and laid the first, second and third stones while in power, is not responding to what matters most,” he complained.

At the end of a meeting with the new President of the Order of Nurses, Luis Filipe Barreira, who was elected in November and replaced Ana Rita Cavaco, Montenegro said that it recognizes the importance of these specialists.

“We intend to gradually improve the pay status of nurses so that the level of career progression can meet their expectations,” he said.

The new chairman has challenged the SDP leader to ensure a “political agreement on health issues can be struck with the different parties” and warned that he will be closely monitoring how many times the AD’s election program contains the word “nurses”.