Gandra d’Almeida accused of ‘illegally accumulated functions’ in Matosinhos/ Gaia/ Abrantes
The deeply embarrassing ‘scandal’ that led to the resignation on Friday of former INEM director António Gandra d’Almeida appears to have amplified over the weekend.
According to reports, the military doctor not only “illegally accumulated” functions as an agency doctor in Algarve hospitals between 2021 and 2024, he also operated in other SNS (state health system) hospitals – namely those of Pedro Hispano in Matosinhos and Eduardo Santos Silva in Vila Nova de Gaia.
Rui Lázaro, president of the syndicate of pre-hospital emergency technicians, tells Correio da Manhã that while Gandra d’Almeida was a doctors with the Armed Forces “he was working weekend and night shifts in VMER (emergency response/ life support vehicles) attached to the Pedro Hispano and Santos Silva hospitals, and when he become the regional director of INEM in the north he continued to do so, as well as working in Gaia Hospital. We crossed paths with him many times (…) In Matosinhos, often, if he hadn’t worked shifts, there would have been no VMER available, due to the lack of doctors…”
Público too has revealed that d’Almeida “worked as a member of the VMER team at Abrantes Hospital”.
But, the bonus of these revelations – albeit sensitive issues of ‘illegally accumulating functions’ within the public sector – is that Rui Lázaro, for instance, is full of praise for the disgraced INEM chief.
“With the lack of doctors (within the state health service) we should be grateful that he accumulated functions”, Lázaro tells CM, saying he has been surprised by the reasons for the resignation.
Nevertheless, none of it is looking good for Gandra d’Almeida. Every media source that can has been looking into the income of businesses he created with his wife to offer his ancillary services, and it appears to have come to “more than half a million euros in two years” (between 2022 and 2023, according to independent news source Página UM, today quoted by Correio da Manhã).
Various media sources have stressed that this money may well have to be ‘returned’ if it is found to have been earned as illegally as everyone appears to think it was.
António Gandra d’Almeida could even end up facing criminal prosecution.
CM adds that almost half way through 2024, just before Gandra d’Almeida was nominated as SNS executive director, he renounced the management of two companies (Raiz Binária and Tarefas Métricas), ceding the shares to his wife and three children (all of whom are under the age of 12).
The paper adds that “beyond health services”, the Gandra d’Almeida family is also involved in commerce and property.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
