Montenegro ‘secures ministerial team for time being’
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has promised a government plan “very soon” to solve INEM’s problems.
Hours after saying, in Castelo de Vide, that the Minister of Health had said everything there was to say about INEM’s problems, Portugal’s PM allowed himself to be led a little further in Castelo Branco, saying that “journalists get very upset – unless -”, he answers “exactly the question” they ask him.
“I already know that they only want to talk about INEM. But I want to say that there is a country that is buzzing every day, despite INEM’s problems, which are serious and which we are solving and will solve. We’re going to present a plan very soon to solve this problem,” he said.
The PM was speaking after inaugurating refurbished spaces at the Higher School of Agriculture and the Higher School of Education, institutions of the Castelo Branco Polytechnic Institute, writes Lusa.
He stressed that the members of his executive are “very committed” to resolving the INEM issues, as well as to “deepening, clarifying and investigating everything that was or may have been a malfunction” at the national institute for medical emergency.
“But I want everyone to know that, although we are concerned and are solving this problem, there is a much bigger project to solve in Portugal. It is the project of us believing in our country, of us believing that we can build more opportunities, that we can generate more wealth,” he said.
For Luís Montenegro, the country concentrates a lot of its energies on “insisting on the same problems” (largely due to the media attention these problems get). His philosophy is different, he explained. He seeks to give the country “hope and a future” – and thus is working on matters that don’t excite such media scrutiny.
The INEM issues (chronic understaffing which have led to serious delays in emergency response which are now linked to the deaths of at least 11 people) are already the subject of urgent inquiries and various investigations (including by the Public Prosecutor’s Office).
Meantime, Expresso reveals that Mr Montenegro is securing the ministerial team at the health ministry… for the time being. Once the various inquiries and investigations have been concluded, he will embark on what the paper calls “the political consequences”, suggesting the ‘weakest links’ when it comes to responsibility are the secretary of state for health, Cristina Vaz Tomé, and INEM president Sergio Janeiro.
Opposition calls for the resignation of health minister Ana Paula Martins, nonetheless, have been strident and look likely to continue. Expresso stresses that the already ‘weakened’ minister is going through this latest crisis “at a moment that is always more challenging for her ministry: the winter”.
What is much easier to take on board in this ongoing drama is WHY INEM has so many problems: the pre-hospital emergency technicians at the centre of problems are surprisingly poorly paid.
As a side story in Expresso puts it: “In a supermarket one earns the same, without the risk”. Pay and conditions are at the root of this crisis – thus it will be very interesting to see what the government’s plan, to be revealed very soon, involves.
