Seeks “a different path for the health system as a whole”
Portugal’s Ordem dos Médicos (Order of Physicians) has “six priorities for the next 60 days” which it will be presenting to Ana Paula Martins, the new minister of health at 9am tomorrow morning.
Speaking to Lusa today, the order’s president Carlos Cortes said that these are measures that “have to be immediately assessed, analysed and implemented” in order to chart “a different path for the health system as a whole, but fundamentally for the SNS (national health system)”.
The order is “responding to the commitment made during the election campaign by the current prime minister, Luís Montenegro, to present an emergency plan for the SNS within the first 60 days of the incoming government, to be implemented by the end of 2025”, explains Lusa.
Among the “set of concerns” that Carlos Cortes will be raising is the “valuing of doctors’ working conditions, the role of doctors within the SNS, within the entire health system, taking into account their high level of differentiation and responsibility”.
He maintains that the best way to achieve this is to create “a new medical career“, which starts with medical internship and accompanies the doctor, “regardless of where they are, in the public sector, the private sector or the social sector” and regardless of where they are working (Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Defence, Ministry of Justice, etc.).
In addition, Local Health Units need to be analysed in order to “correct the trajectory” of this restructuring (which has been hugely unpopular).
“We find it regrettable that there has been no prior assessment, no preparation for one of the most important reforms the SNS has ever had, which has not been discussed, assessed or reflected upon,” he reiterated.
The order agrees with the integration of various levels of care (primary, hospital, long-term care, etc.), but “it’s a measure that has to be evaluated”.
Carlos Cortes also said that the order’s ULS Monitoring Committee will present an evaluation report on the “difficulties” experienced in these units by the third week of May.
The modernisation of the SNS using new technologies is another of the order’s concerns.
Said Cortes, Portugal still doesn’t have “a single, electronic process in place”…
Other “concerns” include improving the functioning of A&E services, and ensuring that all Portuguese have a family doctor, which is currently not the case for 1.7 million people.
Health reform was one of the cornerstones of the last government (in terms of intentions). Indeed, there was a time when PS Socialists pledged to ensure everyone had a family doctor. But the good intentions never got off the ground: if anything systems put in place have added to complications within the SNS health system – hence the AD government’s pledge to come up with a plan (within 60 days) to ‘revolutionise’ the country’s lacklustre State health system.
Source material: LUSA
