Government to review hospital boards

The Government will set up a commission to review hospital boards, the Health Secretary said, who said the move was important to improving the efficiency of the National Health Service.

Ana Paula Martins, who spoke at the parliamentary health committee, where the Emergency Health Plan was heard this Wednesday, guaranteed that the measure “does not cause antagonism [os conselhos de administração]is to support them and help them achieve their mission.”

“It’s easy to get to the middle of the year and realize that the numbers are not very good,” the minister said, adding that it is unacceptable to have hospitals with specialists in January who have already reached the amount of mandatory annual overtime.

Given that health care management is “weak,” a government official said “there needs to be oversight, there needs to be evaluation of managers’ performance.”

“It is not enough for administrators to come and say that they do not have conditions. It is necessary to understand what conditions they need,” said Ana Paula Martins, emphasizing that “there are three IPOs and 39 ULS in these units.” [Unidades Locais de Saúde] There are 15 billion euros in taxes from the Portuguese.”

Regarding “weak leadership,” he stressed the need to revamp the hospital administrator’s career, which began in 1982.

“We need managers who are increasingly aware of what a modern, more technologically advanced SNA is, which requires more skills not only in management in the areas of hospital production, but also in the area of ​​human resource mobilization, in the area of ​​so-called “soft skills.” “, relationship and conflict management skills, and financial skills,” he said.

The minister recalled that the review of this career is part of the government’s program, and said that she must sit down at the negotiating table with these specialists by September.

“Only people who have undergone training at a specific educational institution are allowed to enter this career. Ultimately, this is contrary to any rules regarding scientific, technological and academic development,” the minister complained, stressing that after the review, the career will be open to professionals. from different areas. “We’re going to prepare social media managers for the 21st century, which hasn’t been done in recent years,” he said.

Regarding the first specialized consultations, in addition to the possibility of requesting a consultation (referral) from a family doctor through the “Consulta a Tempo e Horas” (CTH), the Minister announced that the patient will also be given the opportunity to choose the private sector.

“We are going to give the patient the opportunity – this is already provided for in the law – to come to the convention by opening the CTH to convention participants. If we are unable to respond to the public, the congress will be activated,” he said, adding that this activation could be carried out through the SNS 24 Line.

As for emigrants, he clarified that the government will not “purge these patients from the lists of family doctors,” but will create a “reserve list” for people who have not seen a family doctor for more than five years, as was the case previously. .

“These people do not disappear from the system (…). They can be activated at any time,” he said, explaining that it could happen that the family doctor assigned to these people changes departments and in this case the user switches to another doctor , but always to your family medical center.

Regarding the difficulties in recruiting staff in the Algarve and the need for human resources, especially for an area with a large increase in population during the summer, the minister said that, following the proposals of the mayors, the region will be the first to move forward. with the local health care system.

During the hearing, the governor announced that a task force would submit a proposal for a university hospital charter within two months.

“The funding model at these hospitals has to be completely different,” he said.