The opposition on the left in parliament accused the PSD/CDS-PP Government this Tuesday of worsening the situation of the National Health Service (SNS) and privileging private groups, criticizing above all the difficulties in accessing emergency services.
This topic was taken to the plenary by the parliamentary leader of the PCP, Paula Santos, and by the PS deputy and former minister Mariana Vieira da Silva during the period of political declarations, and also raised criticism from BE, Livre and PAN against the executive headed by Luís Montenegro for the management of the National Health Service (SNS).
Paula Santos maintained that “the difficulties that the SNS faces do not happen by chance”, they are “the result of a strategy by the current Government to disarticulate and disaggregate the SNS with a single objective, and that is not to guarantee the health care that users have the right, but rather promote the disease business of private groups”.
In turn, Mariana Vieira da Silva stated that “this Government has worsened the SNS response conditions”, left unimplemented “all measures with a more structural impact” of its Emergency and Transport Plan for Health and seeks to “privilege the response private”.
According to the PS deputy, in addition, “the opacity regarding numbers and results is total” and there is even “the manipulation of very relevant numbers”, verifying a “pattern of omission” on the part of the executive.
The former Minister of the Presidency said that “the working group that the Government appointed to evaluate the Emergency and Transformation Plan complains of a lack of data and contradictory data” and criticized the option of placing the SNS24 telephone line as “a bottleneck in access to emergencies”, with data on waiting times and unanswered calls that are not public.
The deputy elected by the PSD Miguel Guimarães, former president of the Order of Doctors, came out in defense of the Government, countering that “70% of the measures considered urgent and priority were implemented by the end of 2024”, highlighted the agreement with the Independent Union of Médicos (SIM) and stated that “there will be more investment in the SUS next year than in the last three years”.
Addressing Mariana Vieira da Silva, he declared: “Your attempt, in some way, to hide the State in which the SNS left us is completely sterile, in fact, as was the socialist governance in health during the last eight years”.
Miguel Guimarães also pointed the finger at the PCP, claiming that the communists supported the PS “in 2023 when 8 billion euros were transferred to the private and social sector to pay for services provided”, but Paula Santos replied that he was wrong and who during this period voted against the State Budget.
“It is true that the PS also has responsibilities here, the governance of the PS in the absolute majority had the means, had the conditions to resolve these same problems and the truth is that the fact that it did not do so opened doors for this use and for the transfer of care for private groups that the PSD and CDS Government is taking great advantage of”, the PCP parliamentary leader then considered.
On the right, IL and Chega rejected a statist vision for health and Miguel Guimarães asked if the PCP “prefers that a cancer patient waits for months or weeks to be treated in the SUS”.
Source: www.cmjornal.pt
