The Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, said today in Coimbra that the return to negotiations with the unions of doctors and nurses “will not happen in October”.
“We will resume these negotiations very quickly. This negotiation is fundamental”, declared Manuel Pizarro, in response to a question from the Lusa agency.
The minister was speaking to journalists at the end of a meeting with the management of the Coimbra Hospital and University Center (CHUC), which was followed by a visit to the unit’s Emergency, Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine services.
The most important component of the National Health Service (SNS) is its human resources,” he said, stressing that the Government is “very interested in mobilizing the commitment” of the different professionals in the sector.
Reiterating the commitment to resume negotiations with the unions “in the coming weeks,” Manuel Pizarro predicted that this restart “will not happen in October, for sure.”
“I ask the unions for a little understanding. We have just settled in as a team”, he said, recalling that the Government and the Ministry of Health are now involved in preparing the General State Budgets for 2023, which he considered “a very demanding challenge”.
After the visit in the company of the president of the board of directors, Carlos Santos, other officials of the CHUC, and the mayor, José Manuel Silva, former president of the Ordem dos Médicos, the Minister of Health stressed that this hospital complex “is one of the ships badge of the Portuguese SNS”.
What is happening in the CHUC, in his opinion, “has an example effect in many units” of the National Health Service.
Despite “some concerns, but also many reasons for satisfaction”, Manuel Pizarro said that he was leaving Coimbra “very calm” with the present and future of the Hospital Center.
One of the reasons for his satisfaction, he revealed, is that there is “a great agreement in the community that involves this hospital” to “take quick steps towards the construction” of the new maternity hospital in the city, replacing the current two, Bissaya Barreto and Daniel de Matos, members of the CHUC.
In “a few weeks” the architectural project and the execution of the work will advance, so that, in 2023, the public tender will be opened “for the long-awaited construction” of the new maternity unit, on land near the CHUC. thrown out.
From the technical point of view”, that is, regarding the location of the future maternity, the Minister of Health stated: “we are very calm with what has been decided”.
The municipality of Coimbra, in the previous legislature of the executive, headed by the socialist Manuel Machado, advocated the installation of the maternity hospital in Covões, on the left bank of the Mondego river, corroborating a local movement in that direction that involved political parties, unions and other civic and health organizations.
Taking into account a technical study released last week, Manuel Pizarro, without specifying whether or not some maternities in the country will be closed, argued that maternal and child health services must “continue to provide the security they currently provide to pregnant women and their children.” sons”.
Finally, the minister said that the Government will accept the elections made by the executive director of the SNS, Fernando Araújo, in the composition of his team, emphasizing that it is an exclusive competence of him.
Source: Observadora
