Director-General of Health Graça Freitas said this Wednesday that the decision to step down, announced at the end of 2022, was personal, rejecting that it was due to “any arrangement” within the Ministry of Health.
“It was a decision of my jurisdiction and my personal life, and it had nothing to do with external factors, appointments or any other arrangements in the Ministry of Health,” Graça Freitas assured at a hearing at the Health Commission on Request. deputy group from Enough.
After an assessment made in 2022, and given that the commission as CEO ended at the end of that year, he made the decision to inform the Minister of Health that he did not intend to remain in office, he said.
“Obviously I am under management until the minister understands it or until my pension allows it,” Graça Freitas told deputies, noting that after 42 years her status as a civil servant will end, “permanently working in the Ministry of Health and always with full dedication.
As for the new Director General of Health, Graça Freitas said he will be selected through competition, but stressed the “advantage” of being a physician with “deep knowledge of public health with proven evidence in this matter, who has the ambition and vision of the Directorate General of Health » (DGS).
“I usually say that I am an analog sixty-year-old and I need someone more digital than me,” the doctor said.
In front of the deputies of the Health Commission, the CEO who replaced Francisco George in 2017 gave a “positive assessment” of his commission at the head of the DGS, given that during this period marked by the covid-19 pandemic, the CEO showed “absolutely exceptional ability and resilience and possessed great ability to build partnerships.”
At the end of 2022, the Ministry of Health confirmed that Graça Freitas had expressed her desire not to renew her appointment, but would remain in her post until she was replaced.
At the time, the ministry, led by Manuel Pizarro, thanked “for the readiness shown by the Director General of Health at the end of her term, and for all the commitment and dedication of the leadership of the DGS over the past few years, in a special way in response to the pandemic, the largest global public health crisis last century”.
The appointment of the future holder of the post of director general of health will be subject to judicial procedure, subject to the rules for hiring, selecting and filling senior positions in public administration, the ministry also said.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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