The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, greeted the National Health Service (SNS) on Thursday for its 43 years and defended that it must evolve rapidly to respond to current and future challenges.

In a message on the 43 years of the SNS published on the official page of the Presidency of the Republic on the Internet, the head of state “recalls today its importance to improve everyone’s health”, but “without failing to point out the urgency of its evolution to ensure a path of excellence in response to the challenges of current and future times”.

At the beginning of this message, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa points to the creation of the SNS —implemented by law in 1979, under the terms of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic of 1976— as “one of the greatest achievements” of Portuguese democracy“guaranteeing a true right to health”.

The President of the Republic wishes to congratulate its founders and pioneers, who throughout the country have mobilized to gather, multiply and promote health units, as well as, in particular, all its health professionals, whom he congratulates for your commitment and generosity. with which they take care of their fellow citizens on a daily basis”, reads the message.

Then, the head of state says that in March of last year “he awarded the SNS the Military Order of the Tower and the Sword, of Valor, Loyalty and Merit”, the most important Portuguese honorary order, which he presented to the then Minister of Health, Marta Temida, for the “selflessness and heroism” of its professionals, especially in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlights the importance of the SNS “in improving everyone’s health, without discrimination of any kind, its role as a unifying element of the country, its universal and tendentially free character”, and ends this message defending “the urgency of its evolution to ensure a path of excellence in response to the challenges of current and future times”.

In the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic of 1976, which only had votes against the CDS, it was established that “the right to health protection is realized through the creation of a universal, general and free national health service” and that Among the duties of the State in this matter was “to discipline and control the commercial and private forms of medicine, articulating them with the national health service.”

The creation of the SNS was implemented three years later with Law No. 59/1979, published in the Diário da República on September 15. Approved by PS, PCP and UDP, with votes against by PSD and CDS, this law determined the constitution of a “network of official organizations and services” within the scope of the Ministry of Social Affairs, through which “the State guarantees the right to health protection, in the terms of the Constitution”.

Santos Silva says that SNS is “a treasure”

The president of the Assembly of the Republic says that the parliament, in the diversity of its opinions, will strive to improve the National Health Service, which he considered a “treasure” and one of the great achievements of democracy.

This position of Augusto Santos Silva is contained in a video message broadcast this Thursday on the official website of the Assembly of the Republic on the occasion of SNS Day.

“The Assembly of the Republic will constantly strive, in the diversity of its currents of opinion, to improve this treasure of ours that is the SNS”assures the former Minister of State and Foreign Affairs.

The President of the Assembly of the Republic begins by pointing out that on September 15, 1979, Parliament approved the SNS, defending later that in the last 43 years “the health of the Portuguese has improved significantly”.

In this context, he points to two examples: “Life expectancy was 71 years at the end of the 1970s and now it is 80 years old and the infant mortality rate has dropped from 26 per thousand to 2.4 per thousand.”

“The absolutely decisive contribution that the SNS has had and still has in improving these health indicators and in the evolution of the well-being of the Portuguese men and women is evident to all,” he maintains.

Regarding the political debate around the operation of this sector, Augusto Santos Silva highlights the existence of several perspectives.

“You can discuss the best way to finance, organize, manage and provide the services that you have to provide, but one thing is certain: the SNS is one of the great achievements of Portuguese democracy and is one of the great factors of unity between the Portuguese”, he pleads.

In his message, the President of the Assembly of the Republic thanks “all the professionals who day by day make the SNS move, function and develop”.