The coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda (BE), Catarina Martins, criticized this Sunday “the inability of the Government” to respond to the most immediate needs of public services, including hospital and airport emergencies and the drought, as well as the problem of inflation.
“At this time, the emergency closure scenario continues in the National Health Service and the Government does not present a single proposal that could have an immediate effect,” said Catarina Martins, in the presentation of the conclusions of the National Board of BE, which met in Lisbon.
At a press conference, the leader of the BE said that the needs in the National Health Service (SNS) “have been diagnosed for a long time”, indicating that “hospitals need autonomy to contract”, the exclusivity regime to allow the dedication to public service and valuing SNS professionals and unfreezing careers.
The block coordinator mentioned that there are medical progression contests, for example, that have been frozen since 2017, considering that “with the situation of constant deterioration of professional conditions, it is natural that there are more and more professionals leaving the National Health System” . . Health”.
While this is happening, the National Health Service spends more and more money contracting with individuals and contracting with service providers, which last year already had 140 million euros for emergency service providers alone, it is In other words, what the Government denies health professionals is overpaying private companies that are already operating within hospitals”, declared Catarina Martins, adding that, with this, SNS professionals are moving to the private sector. .
For BE, “the inability of the government” extends to other public services, including the situation of “chaos” in airports, the lack of teachers in schools and the delay in justice.
“To the problems of public services is added the problem of inflation“, the BE leader pointed out, referring to the fact that the Government has refused “two basic measures, price controls and salary increases”, “which makes the situation of the population in general degrading”.
Catarina Martins questioned the inaction of the executive: “There is not a single government measure to control inflation or to ensure that wages can respond to the increase in the cost of living.”
The meeting of the National Board of the BE also addressed the drought that the country is facing, a problem that the blockers consider has not been answered by the Government either, despite the fact that the situation is worse than in 2005, the year in which Decisions were made such as “cutting off, limiting the supply of water to the population of the Algarve for consumption, so, at this time, decisions had to be made”.
“The Government does not make any decision on water and the drought is at values that we have not seen for many years,” he reinforced.
The leader of BE defended as immediate measures the public management of the reservoirs of the perimeters of public irrigation, to defend even small farmers from intensive farmingas well as, “specifically in the Algarve, so that the water supply to the population in general is not cut off, for example, that golf courses are irrigated with wastewater”.
“These are immediate measures, of immediate scope, so that those who most need water do not run out of water and that drinking water reaches where it is needed,” he stressed.
Source: Observadora
