The President of the Republic this Wednesday insisted on the need to define a new organic structure for the National Health Service (NHS), warning that “otherwise pieces of the puzzle will start to fall apart”, but despite everything, he expressed hope.
“Time is of fundamental importance in politics. The best idea in the world, a year and a half late, becomes a less good idea,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the initiative at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon.
When asked if he was afraid that Fernando Araujo would leave the executive council of the SNA due to the delay in approving the relevant regulations, the head of state replied that “he is a very determined person” who “managed to turn the tide.” Hospital of São João” in Porto, and that “it is very effective” in the places where it is located.
“So it’s about creating the conditions to be an effective and efficient team, as it is now, to be able to start and solve various problems, some of which are old, the clock problem is old. , others are later,” addressed .
Shortly afterwards, the President of the Republic, together with the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, attended the presentation of the Maria José Nogueira Pinto Prize, established by the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), at the Palacio Fronteira in Lisbon.
Neither spoke to reporters after the ceremony.
In his earlier statements regarding the SNS, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa confirmed that he expected “some dialogue between the Ministry of Health and the trade unions, on the one hand, and the Ministry of Health and the Order [dos Médicos]from another.”
“We’ll see if at the end of this week of meetings, contacts, next week there will be more reasons to talk about dialogue,” he said.
However, according to the head of state, in parallel with this negotiation process, a “fundamental problem” remains – the lack of a legal definition of a “new management scheme for the State Tax Service.”
“We talked about maternity hospitals, then we talked about overtime pay. It is important that the new SNA governance scheme be implemented as quickly as possible,” he said.
“One year and three to four months for reform is a long time, which means that the transition from one management model to another is half the way,” he said.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, “this needs to be put into practice” in order to “have a vision of the whole, complete puzzle – otherwise the puzzle pieces will start to burst.”
“And I hope that this will be implemented,” he added.
The President of the Republic stated that it is in everyone’s interest “that the SNS works and remains fundamental, because those who have no money for an alternative – and there are millions of Portuguese, unfortunately – are essentially dependent on the SNS” and therefore “their good management , implemented on time and implemented through the announced reform, is fundamental.”
The Maria José Nogueira Pinto Prize for Social Responsibility was also presented by Maria de Belen Roseira, former Minister of Health, who presides over the jury, Graça de Freitas, former Director General of Health, and Maria Cavacu Silva, wife of the previous President of the Republic.
Maria José Nogueira Pinto, a former deputy elected from the SDS-PP and then an independent candidate on the PSD list, died in July 2011 at the age of 59.
This was the 11th edition of the award named after him. The winner was the E-Integrar project from Associação Pró-partilha e Inserção do Algarve.
The Family Planning Association and the Pista Mágica Association received honorary awards.