Visit comes in (yet another) summer of health discontent
Portugal’s president and prime minister are to visit the Oncology service at Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital today, as well as its renovated maternity facilities, at a point where the media is bristling stories attesting to yet another summer of health chaos and discontent.
It is going to be ‘quite a show’, concede newspapers, referring to the poor execution of the government’s health service emergency plan, which has reportedly seen only two of the 54 urgent measures concluded in two months.
The event “should mark the end of the silence of Luís Montenegro”, says tabloid Correio da Manhã, referring to the PM’s dogged refusal to “pronounce on the chaos of A&E departments, intensified by the summer” – and it may be the beginning of the end for health minister Ana Paula Martins, who will be accompanying the president and the prime minister today, but whose overall performance since taking office has seen her rated the worst performing minister in the government so far.
CM’s editorial director general Carlos Rodrigues has given his view of what today is all about, long before it even begins:
“Of course, today’s joint visit to Santa Maria Hospital will see both Marcelo and Montenegro fall over themselves in mutual praise of this initiative to travel to the centre of problems within the SNS (public health service).
“The president will highlight the presence of the prime minister, and exhort the Portuguese people to be calm and await the results of the policies of this new government.
“The head of government, standing beside him, will welcome the head of State’s effort in calling attention to the problem, and applaud everything that is being done by his government to resolve the chaotic situation in A&E departments.
“But, there should be no misunderstanding: this afternoon’s initiative is only intended to put the health minister on the media pillory, at the forefront of a presidential pressure that will not let up, and will tend to increase with the passage of time, which will, as is plain to see, lead to worsening difficulties in health, because too many mistakes were made by the minister at the beginning of her mandate.
“With his visit to the largest hospital in the country, Marcelo is introducing the spectre of a government reshuffle, which will probably take some time, as Montenegro cannot embark on one this early, but which, the longer it takes, the more it will damage the government majority, giving the head of State greater opportunity to intervene in the sector”.
In other words, all the smiles and mutual congratulations need to be put into perspective: there are still 1,500 cancer patients awaiting surgery beyond the recommended time; expectant mothers are still being put through the loop when they need attention; pediatric A&Es are still subject to frequent closures; doctors and nurses are still staging strikes and industrial action – and the clamour from opposition parties shows no sign of letting up.
