Manuel Pizarro, the Minister of Health who succeeded Marta Temido, admits that the scenario of the National Health Service (SNS) is “more difficult” than he expected when he accepted the invitation to join the Government in September. He even points out that the most serious cases he is dealing with are in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley and in the South region and says that in the North “there is greater efficiency in resource management.”
In an interview with TSF and Jornal de Notícias, the former MEP assumed what a surprise in the state of the SNS: “I found myself with a more difficult scenario than I expected.” Both in Lisbon and in the Tagus Valley and in the southern region, the Minister of Health explained that “the difficulties are very great, either due to a lack of human resources or because we have left the SNS a little behind in the modernization process technology and in process of requalification of facilities”.
Manuel Pizarro, despite not knowing the reasons, explained that “there is greater efficiency in the management of resources in the Northern Region than in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley.” “The SNS has success stories throughout the country. Now, it is true that in the Northern region, I cannot fully explain why —perhaps because people are closer—, there are cooperation experiences that began a long time ago and that gave better results”, he argued.
The minister considers that seven years of the PS government served to do “a lot” in terms of Health and to compensate for “a good part of the brutal losses of the troika years”, but she stressed that “austerity in the SNS was devastating From the beginning”. from the point of view of technological modernization and the perspective of the future”.
He has no doubts that “more needs to be done”, but he does not believe that “there is no retention capacity or attractiveness in the public health sector”. In fact, Manuel Pizarro stated that “today the SNS has around 4,300 medical specialists, more than at the end of 2015” to justify that not all health professionals want to go to the private sector.
However, the Minister of Health admitted that it is necessary to look at the situation of the salary tables to solve the problems of the SNS. Pizarro said that it was “good news” that there was an agreement with the majority of the nurses’ unions to “revalue the career” and promised that “the situation of the doctors comes immediately after.”
Source: Observadora
