PCP accuses PS, PSD and CDS of wanting to ‘move obstetrics and gynecology into the healthcare sector’

On Tuesday, the PCP accused the PS, PSD and CDS of wanting to “pull obstetrics and gynaecology into the SNS”, arguing that the current government is supporting the policies of the previous one and calling on it to present “concrete measures” to address the situation.

“There is already a regime agreement between the PS, PSD and CDS, according to which obstetrics and gynaecology should be transferred to the National Health Service (SNS). This is what they did in the previous government, this is what this government is doing,” accused Bernardino Soares, a member of the PCP Central Committee, at a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Lisbon.

The leader of the communists considered that “the very serious situation in the maternity and emergency obstetric departments of the SNS is a long-proclaimed catastrophe and, moreover, an expected and desired consequence of the policy of the current and previous government in the field of health care.”

Noting that this weekend “most maternity hospitals in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley region were closed” and pregnant women from Leiria were sent to Porto until the 19th, Bernardino Soares considered the situation “very serious” and has no response to the health emergency program presented by the government.

The program “essentially has another phone line, more incentives for professionals to give birth to more babies than the previous year’s average – without knowing if or when – and, of course, more private hiring. The government’s choice is to watch undaunted as conditions of service deteriorate,” he charged.

The PCP leader said that “the situation that occurred this weekend and which will continue can only be resolved in essence by improving the pay and career conditions of health workers.”

“The government is required to take concrete, immediate and urgent measures to respond to the precarious situation that is putting the health and lives of pregnant women at risk. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Health are required to disclose information to the country so that measures can be taken,” he said.

Bernardino Soares, in particular, asked the government when it would hire “newly trained professionals in April, especially in the specialty of gynecology and obstetrics” and how many health workers it intends to “hire in the short term for the SNS gynecology and obstetrics services.”

“We need concrete measures, not empty declarations,” he stressed.

The leader of the communists also stated that there are those in the PS who want to “shake off the water” with what is happening on social networks, but added that it can be said “without false irony” that “the criticism that the PS is doing to the SDP and what the SDP is doing to the PS are true, since they are accomplices to the situation that has arisen.”

Asked how he views the PSD parliamentary leader’s call for a broad rapprochement between the parties to save the SNS, Bernardino Soares replied: “But what does preserving the SNS mean for the PS and the PSD?”

“It seems to me that for them the pact is to hand over most of the SNS to the private sector. In this pact they are not counting on the PCP,” he stressed, adding that if they want “an increase in the basic salary of health workers,” conditions for career advancement and a reduction in working hours, they can count on the party.

Asked about the alleged refusal of the Caldas da Rainha hospital to treat a pregnant woman who had suffered a miscarriage, Bernardino Soares asked for quick clarification but refused to comment on the specific case, stressing that the main thing for the Health Minister is to announce “measures to resolve the general situation.”

“Because these cases are happening only because emergency departments are closed, because firefighters are transporting pregnant women hundreds of miles without knowing where they can be left for care. That’s the main problem,” he said.