IL proposes strengthening health budget and entering into agreements with private companies

The coordinator of the Liberal Initiative (IL) in the Azores and candidate in the regional legislative elections, Nuno Barata, defended this Monday the strengthening of the budget of the Regional Health Service and greater emphasis on partnerships with private companies.

“The conventions do not work because the Regional Health Service’s contract with private service providers is below the costs those providers bear for additional diagnostic tests, and this has led to a delay in the provision of these services to some citizens referred from the Regional Health Service,” Nuno Barata said in a statement to Lusa.

The regional coordinator and sole deputy of the IL, who again tops the list of constituencies of San Miguel and compensation for the early elections that will take place on Sunday, visited the Bom Jesus Clinic in Ponta Delgada, this time Monday, the beginning of the last week of the campaign.

For Nuno Barata, health “is an extremely important sector”, but it is necessary to guarantee “universality, fairness and efficiency” of access to health care in the Azores.

“All Azoreans should have the same access to health care, whether public or private, under the same conditions,” he stressed.

The IL candidate defended the sector’s “decent budget”, arguing that this had not happened in recent years.

“Everyone wants to talk about more airplanes here, there and there, everyone wants to talk about boats to carry passengers here, here and there, everyone wants to talk about public works that have no return. There are insufficient funds in the economic and health sectors. will continue to be allocated from the region’s budget year after year to guarantee minimum health services for all Azoreans,” he stressed.

Nuno Barata, who advocated reducing the region’s debt, assured that it was possible to increase the budget allocated to health care while maintaining a balanced budget if “extra expenses” were reduced.

“Losses accumulating annually [companhia aérea pública] Azores Airlines can reduce queues for operations by 50%. You must have options. The regional government of the Azores has to choose whether it wants to treat the Azoreans or whether it wants to continue losing money by playing with airplanes,” he stressed.

The Liberal Initiative wants to activate and implement “systems such as Vale Saúde, Check Saúde, protocols and agreements with private service providers.

According to the liberal candidate, the Azores has “too many shortcomings in the health sector”, such as “computer systems between health facilities and hospitals that do not communicate with each other” or the lack of use of established private capacity, of which he cited as an example ” operating rooms that exist both at the CUF Hospital in Lagoa and at the Bom Jesus Clinic in Ponta Delgada.”

“There are islands where there is no such offer, and then the Regional Health Service must help citizens with more zeal, more persistence, more care, but where these services exist, we understand that they must be used, even to facilitate the work of the Regional Health Service . Health, so that it can provide services where there is no such private offer,” he emphasized.

Eleven candidates are vying for the regional legislature of the Azores: PSD/CDS-PP/PPM (the coalition that currently governs the region), ADN, CDU (PCP/PEV), PAN, Alternative 21 (MPT/Aliança), IL, Chega , BE, PS, JPP and Livre.