IL says emergency medical plan ‘insufficient’

The head of the European IL list said this Wednesday that the emergency care program presented by the AD government does not go “far enough” in reducing waiting lists and appointing more family doctors.

At the end of a visit to a car park in Gondomar, Porto district, and emphasizing that the issue is a national and not a European policy, João Cotrim de Figueiredo stated that the health measures presented by AD are “only emergency measures”.

“What we’re saying is that over a year ago we introduced a blueprint for structural reform of the NHS called Your Health, which was much more ambitious and much more structural than what the AD government appears to be proposing. ready to do this,” he said.

As for the first on the IL list, the emergency medical program “does not go far enough in terms of reducing waiting lists and allocating more family doctors to the Portuguese.”

Cotrim de Figueiredo said IL’s health measures “contrast with the more or less retail and patchwork solutions” of AD.

The Liberal candidate therefore stressed that it was important to “assume once and for all” that the National Health System (NHS) in its current form will not be able to meet the needs of Portuguese people, who are growing due to demographic pressure. .

“This will not be possible unless the design changes structurally,” he stressed.

According to the head of the IL list, if the “structural cause” of the problems of the SNA is not eliminated, “sooner or later” these problems will be discussed again and “often in worse situations.”

The Prime Minister announced this Wednesday that the emergency health program intends to stretch NHS resources to the limit, but also draws on the social and private sectors to complement each other.

“This health emergency and transformation plan will exhaust to the limit the potential of the state, whether in the use of human resources or in the use of all health facilities,” said Luis Montenegro, presenting the measures for the sector approved this Wednesday by the Council of Ministers.

At the press conference, the head of the executive branch assured that “the Government does not turn the management of the healthcare sector into an ideological issue,” emphasizing that when the capabilities of the SNS are exhausted, “citizens cannot be deprived of access to healthcare.” the health they need and deserve.”

Later, in statements to journalists in the Assembly of the Republic, IL MP Mario Amorim Lopez criticized the government for not “immediately including the social sector and the private sector” as resources, saying that “the SNA has long since exhausted its capabilities.” capacity.”

In general terms, the IL deputy considered that this Plan for Emergency Situations and Transformations in Health Care is “very focused on emergency measures, more urgent,” but “in the structural part it clearly fails, so transformation is only in name.”

Regarding the referral system for patients on the SNS waiting list to other departments, he asked that “that referral be done from the outset”, arguing that “hospitals know what their average response time is.”

Mario Amorim Lopez also believes that the goal of hiring 100 psychologists for health centers is “insufficient” and “certainly will not meet all needs.”