The Minister of Health said this Wednesday that Portugal has one of the “best indices” of maternal and child health in the world and that to maintain them it needs to “reorganize” the network according to the needs of citizens and quality and safety standards.
“Today, and I want to leave this message of tranquility that is very important for the people, Portugal is a beautiful country to be born in, it is a beautiful country for pregnant women and it is a beautiful country for its children. We have one of the best maternal and child health indices in the world (…) And what do we have to do? Taking the necessary measures so that, in the future, it continues to be like this, reorganizing the network according to the needs of citizens and in accordance with quality and safety standards”, Manuel Pizarro pointed out.
On the sidelines of the inauguration of the Luís Vega Training School, at the São João da Madeira hospital, Manuel Pizarro said that it was necessary ensure that “the system works” and has “a quality response” for pregnant womenmainly for those who have to go to maternity hospitals outside their area of residence to receive health care.
Fortunately, in most cases, answers are given at the right time and there have been no difficulties. We are attentive on this issue, ”he assured and said that, although there are no conditions to resume“ totally ”all maternal and child care services,“ contingency measures ”are necessary.
Asked about the existing limitations in some obstetric services in the country, the minister stated that “immediately” it is necessary to ensure “the predictability of these events”????????
“We know in advance the problems that we are going to have in one case or another, and that allows us to reorient the entire network of services (…) we can redirect pregnant women that they need attention for this unit that is working and that is what we have to do”, he said.
Considering that the reorientation of pregnant women to other health units is “an undesirable solution”Manuel Pizarro reinforced the need to “guarantee” that the reorganization of the network “will allow the permanent operation of all services.”
Also questioned about the news advanced this Monday by the SIC, that the closure of private maternity hospitals was expected to standardize the rules between private institutions, the Private Institutes of Social Solidarity (IPSS) and the National Health System (SNS), The minister stressed that the issue is “to be evaluated from a technical point of view” and that the procedure applies equally to public and private maternity hospitals.
????????[As maternidades privadas] they have the same technical evaluation procedure as public maternity hospitals because from the point of view of compliance with quality and safety standards I don’t see that there is a good reason to distinguish whether maternity hospitals are public or private“, he assured, saying that the rules “should apply to everyone”.
Before those present at the inauguration and, later, in statements to journalists, the minister added that “just over two million Portuguese have already been vaccinated against the flu and just over two million [de portugueses] He did the booster vaccine against Covid-19.
“About 1.6 million [de portugueses] the two administrations at the same time [vacina da gripe e vacina contra a Covid-19]”, he said, adding that the Government intends to reach the three million Portuguese vaccinated with a booster dose against covid-19 before Christmas.
Also questioned by journalists about the contingency plan for the winter, Manuel Pizarro said that the authority is “working very actively on these measures” and will announce in the coming days how the plan will be disseminated.
Source: Observadora
