In the final days of his mandate President Marcelo has returned three decrees concerning new rules for hiring agency doctors, regional emergency services, and the waiting list management system.
According to several media outlets, the effective ‘vetoes’ centre on decrees approved by the Council of Ministers in October.
A source for the government has confirmed the receipt of “communications” from the president “for the improvement of three decree-laws that would approve three of the most important reforms in Health”, adding that it is “analysing” them and that they “fall within a usual inter-institutional dialogue regarding government decrees”.
“The Executive will seek to identify opportunities for improvement in the formulations initially approved, convinced that the Portuguese people expect and demand changes and reforms in healthcare, knowing that improvements cannot be made by leaving everything as it is,” according to the official source.
At issue is the decree that establishes a new organisational model for regional external emergency services, providing for their centralised operation. The government intends to concentrate the obstetrics emergency services of Barreiro and Setúbal hospitals at Garcia de Orta Hospital as early as January, and, in the long-term, to build a new maternal and child health center.
Marcelo is asking the government to improve the new model for hiring doctors on a service provision basis by the state health system against a background of syndicate ‘outrage’.
The outgoing head of state also has doubts about the creation of the National System for Access to Consultations and Surgeries (SINACC, which replaces the current SIGIC, adding consultations to the system that already provided for the use of private providers for surgeries that exceed waiting times).
According to Público, “this new system will also have an alert system for possible fraud so that situations like additional surgeries in the dermatology department of Santa Maria Hospital, where several irregularities were detected, do not happen again.”
Source: LUSA
