The PCP accused the government this Thursday of preparing the “provide an even larger share of healthcare” to the private sector due to the absence of “decisive and urgent” responses to the National Health Service (SNS).
“The apparent inaction of the government can only have one meaning: it is preparing to hand over an even larger share of health care to the private sector, increasing its funding with state resources“, advocated the communist leader Bernardino Soares, at a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Lisbon.
The former mayor of Loures (he lost his autarchy in 2021 to the socialist Ricardo Leão) considered that the “absence of decisive and unavoidable measures required by the SNS coexists with options and decisions, such as the SNS Statute”, which, from the point of view of the PCP, translates into favoring “theprivate groups that make the disease a business“.
One of the main scourges of the SNS is the maintenance of the “centralization of fundamental decisions in the Ministry of Finance”, which is nothing more than “a fundraising scheme“, continued Bernardino Soares, “although the budgetary funds are not formally applied”.
The defunding of the National Health Service leaves it “hostage to providers and private providers” and with a “strongly affected” management capacity, argued the member of the PCP Central Committee.
“the government knows“, added Bernardino Soares, that “the more time passes without taking essential measures, the more the SNS response degrades, the more dependence on the private sector increases and the more difficult it becomes for the majority of Portuguese to have access to health” . watch out”.
For the communist Central Committee, there are three pillars to strengthen the SNS and to which the socialist executive continues to turn a blind eye: the assessment of the career and remuneration of health professionals; guarantee the autonomy of health units, with a sufficient budget and without the “restrictive control” by Fernando Medina; continually invest in the SNS, with a view to reducing “dependence on the private sector”.
Bernardino Soares, who assumed the health portfolio in the PCP after leaving the municipal activity, concluded that “the Government knows” all this, but “does not want” to change course.
Source: Observadora
