Minister ‘surprised’: presumed plan would have been prepared months ago
Outgoing SNS CEO Fernando Araújo has reportedly ‘refused’ to come up with a plan for the running of the health service through the summer.
According to Público, Mr Araújo did not even expect such a request, having recently agreed with the Ministry of Health that he would only remain in his post in order to deliver the activity report, required by the Ministry.
Says Público, the CEO was given 60 days to deliver his executive board’s activity report, but wants to submit it ‘early’ (this month).
He said at the time of his resignation: “We will not shy away from presenting the requested document, which we have already started to prepare, not least because we believe that it is not only a responsibility, but a duty, to expose the results of the work carried out, so that it can be scrutinised, something that is healthy in public life”.
But there appears to have been no preparation done for the summer (which, as health minister Ana Paula Martins points out, ‘is almost here’).
Thus, reacting to Público’s story, Ana Paula Martins says she is ‘surprised’, but dealing with it.
“We had imagined, as I think is natural, that it (the summer plan) had already been programmed, given that we are right on the verge of summer. In fact, I was expecting us to already be working on the winter plan, a plan that has to be prepared at least four to five months in advance,” she told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to the operating theatre at Santo António Hospital, where she learnt about a project that brings together robotic surgery and artificial intelligence.
“We have a task force that is being appointed by order and that has already been working since we took office on the accident and emergency department plan that will soon be presented by the government”, she added, stressing that “seasonal Public Health plans are the responsibility of the DGS (general health directorate), the country’s national health authority – because of heatwaves and cold snaps; they are always done by the DGS and will continue to be done (…). But summarising a long decree-law (on the statutes of the DE-SNS of which Fernando Araújo is CEO) with many responsibilities and numerous attributions, it is very clear that the coordination of the network, of the network of ULS (Local Health Units) which include hospital centres and the so-called health centres, is the responsibility of the executive director and his team to guarantee the coordination of this entire network”.
In other words, the minister can see no reason why Fernando Araújo has not drawn up a summer health plan.
“If we have situations of greater pressure at certain times of the year, in certain regions of the country and in certain specialities, such as obstetrics, that’s what the DE-SNS does, has done, and hence this expectation.”
Before heading to the Northern Maternal and Child Centre (CMIN) – a structure that is also part of the ULS Santo António – Ana Paula Martins was also asked who would succeed Fernando Araújo at the DE-SNS, “but she didn’t answer”, writes Lusa.
Regarding the visit to CMIN, which was not formally scheduled, the minister said that it would serve to meet with “leaders in the North and understand (…) the response to be given to citizens”.
This is particularly relevant given the chaos in obstetrics and maternity care during the last 18 months of the previous government.
On Sunday, Ana Paula Martins is scheduled to visit the obstetrics emergency department of the São João Hospital, also in Porto.
Source material: SIC Notícias/ Lusa
