Portugal’s Prime Minister has been accused of being “out of touch” and “completely disconnected from the country” after insisting that the national health service (SNS) is not in crisis and that there is simply a “perception of chaos”.
The accusations came from the leader of the Socialist Party (PS), José Luis Carneiro, who said that Luís Montenegro showed “insensitivity and incompetence” when denying the crisis and declaring that waiting times at hospitals are “the best in the last five years.”
“When the Prime Minister says that there are no problems in health, this can only be explained by the fact that someone has been detached from reality for a long time,” Carneiro told journalists in Fafe, in the Braga district, on the sidelines of the Parlamento dos Jovens (Youth Parliament) session organised by a local vocational school.
The Socialist leader insisted that the PM is “completely out of touch with the country” and that he had already sensed this disconnect during Montenegro’s New Year address. “Each day and each week that passes, I become more firmly convinced of it. This is a prime minister who is not in tune with the people,” he argued.
Carneiro also renewed pressure on the government over the tender for new ambulances, which followed a string of deaths linked to long waits for ambulances, claiming that the process was authorised under the previous Socialist administration and questioning why it has taken so long to produce results. He challenged Montenegro to explain why, despite approval to expand the ambulance fleet two years ago, there has still been no timely reinforcement of emergency medical transport.
“It is very important that the prime minister explains why this tender took so long to have an effect, because we are still going to be waiting many more months for ambulances for hospital emergencies,” he said.
Regarding the future of Health Minister Ana Paula Martins, Carneiro stressed that the decision ultimately rests with the prime minister, once again accusing Montenegro of “not listening to the country”. He pointed out that even Luís Marques Mendes, the presidential candidate supported by the PSD (the party that leads the ruling AD coalition), has publicly called for explanations from the health minister.
“When Dr Marques Mendes, who is supported by the AD, demands explanations from the health minister, that says it all,” Carneiro said. “From my point of view, it is the prime minister who must answer why he continues to keep the country in this state of unpredictability and insecurity in such a vital area as health.”
According to Carneiro, the government is failing at every stage of policy-making. “Planning, decision-making and execution are all failing,” he said. “The government has lost its capacity to implement policies. It has long since lost its reformist momentum and now shows a great lack of preparedness, and above all, insensitivity.”
