IL Calls on Secretary of Health to Reinstate PPP and Extend Health Center Hours

This Friday, IL called on the Minister of Health to restore public-private partnerships and extend the opening hours of health centers, in addition to “promoting the depoliticization of healthcare,” in a letter with 10 measures “to stabilize the SNS.”

In the letter, which Lusa had access to, the IL Parliamentary Group argues that the 10 measures are not intended to be “comprehensive reform of the health system” but rather “a short-term plan, quickly implementable, that will help mitigate some of the more pressing problems in the NHS (SNS).”

Among these problems, IL identifies “1.5 million Portuguese who do not have a family doctor” and have “conditional access to primary health care”, as well as “delays in specialized consultations and operations” or “inability to support emergencies and open services in a stable state” . and a predictable path.”

In the first of ten measures presented to Health Minister Ana Paula Martins, IL asks her to contribute “to the depoliticization of health care” and end “the class struggle to which the radical left and PS have led the SNS.”

“The patient should be the center of attention, and the legal nature of the health care provider should not serve as a throwing weapon. Public, private or social, what matters is that users are provided with good health care,” the document says.

In addition to this measure, IL is calling on the executive branch to reinstate public-private partnerships, which it believes will save public money and ensure “the delivery of excellent health care, always within the scope of government services.”

The party also proposes to consider a public-private partnership model “in expansion works and in new hospitals, namely the East Lisbon Hospital or in the expansion works of the Aveiro Hospital.”

Another measure proposed by IL is to extend the opening hours of health centers and ensure they are open on weekends.

“Acute illness does not choose a schedule, and working parents cannot take their children to the medical center during working hours, which sometimes even leads to avoidable absenteeism from work,” he says.

At the healthcare worker level, the party argues that there should be “variable remuneration based on ‘job’ criteria and the value of health,” summarizing “the model in place at USF-B that creates the right incentives to improve productivity.” and efficiency.”

IL also wants to reconsider the “full commitment model, ensuring that salary increases are accompanied by an effective increase in care activity” and “explore the implementation of the figure of the advanced practice nurse”, which it says already exists in countries such as the US, Belgium or Great Britain, and which would “ease the burden” of general and family medicine doctors.

The party also asks the Secretary of Health to expedite the “conversion of family practice (USF) model A to model B, create incentives for all health centers to switch to the USF model, and begin the implementation of USF-C,” which would allow “the contracting of family physicians with private and social sector.”

While not scrapping local health unit (ULS) reform, IL is however calling on the government to review its geographical coverage area and ensure “technical and non-political criteria” when appointing boards.

“Positions in health administration are too important to be handed over to party departments,” the party argues.

IL believes that “the permanent solution to the serious shortcomings of the social network is not achieved by top-to-bottom fiat, but rather through the design of a health care system that contains incentives for its continuous improvement on the part of its participants, in particular health care providers and their patients.”

“However, such a desire requires further reflection and discussion and is therefore beyond the scope of this letter, but which we will begin at the appropriate time,” the party promises.