The PSD chairman expressed this Monday as the party’s ambition to place the Portuguese health system among the ten best in the world by 2040, making “a radical break with the statistical and centralist vision” of the PS government.
At a press conference at the PSD national headquarters, on a day when he completes a year as leader of the party, Luís Montenegro presented in general terms a document that the PSD called “Mobilizing Agenda 2030-2040”, with five strategic axes and 25 structural proposals to change this sector in Portugal.
“Our ambition is to place Portugal among the most developed countries of the OECD in terms of health indicators: by 2030 in the top 15 and by 2040 in the top 10. There are conditions, there is know-how, there are people “he defended, emphasizing that “problems cannot be solved overnight”.
The first way to do that, he argued, is “to make a radical break with the statistical and centralist vision with which the government has managed the SNS and led it to the chaos in which it finds itself, as evidenced by the contestation and lack of motivation”.
“Ideology does not cure people, health professionals and medicine are the ones who heal people,” he said, stating that the party’s proposals are “contributions to the discussion” and without “any ideological dogma.”
Asked about referring low-risk pregnant women to private hospitals, Montenegro stressed that using the SNS “to the installed capacity of the social sector is a right path that the PSD has been defending for many years”.
“I see that the minister [Manuel Pizarro] is increasingly approaching the PSD speech (…) I regret that only when there is a huge vortex of reality does the government and its members wake up to this inevitability,” he lamented.
The PSD begins today with four days dedicated to health, with visits to hospitals and meetings, and ends on Thursday with a potentative schedule in parliament of five recommendations to the government.
“Today we kick off with this appeal to the country, health officials, politicians and the government,” he challenged.
For example, among the proposals considered structural by the Social Democrats to carry out “a profound transformation of the SNS into a truly national health system” are a multi-year budget for health, an annual “check-up” “with full freedom of choice for every citizen in the public, private or social sector”, digital GP for three million Portuguese or the optional extension of the ADSE health subsystem to other population groups, in addition to civil servants.
During the press conference, which lasted about half an hour, Montenegro was flanked by the vice president for health, Miguel Pinto Luz, parliamentary leader Joaquim Miranda Sarmento and the coordinator of the National Strategic Council (CEN) for health, former deputy Nuno Freitas. .
The document handed over to the media gives a history of the contributions of the PSD to the health sector, from Sá Carneiro to Pedro Passos Coelho, ending with the presentation of the five strategic axes that the party defends for health and that equality going, proximity – “change the gateway to the health system” – innovation, collaboration between academia, industry and hospitals, and sustainability.
Montenegro has not submitted the 25 structural proposals of the 2030-2040 health mobilization agenda and, when asked about the costs of one of them, considered that now is not the time to “quantify investments, but to define strategies” , and stressed that it is not in the election campaign.
“We are aware that strategic and structural problems cannot be solved in a year or in a legislature. We want to involve citizens, professional associations, trade unions and all stakeholders in building a program for changing Portuguese health”, defended he.
Montenegro says “very, very satisfied” and praises parliamentary leader
The PSD chairman said he was “very, very satisfied” with his first year in office, and praised the “exceptional work” of the parliamentary leader, who he will be attending Thursday’s session of the council.
Luís Montenegro was asked about his first year in charge of the Social Democrats, which has now come to an end, and about the tensions between the bank and the parliamentary leader, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, who sat by his side.
“We are very, very satisfied with what we have done, but we want to do much more on the path we have promised to revive a strong, energetic, mobilized and mobilizing PSD to give Portugal a new majority and a new government,” he said. said.
As for whether Miranda Sarmento would “jeopardize his place”, the PSD president reaffirmed his confidence in the parliamentary leader he had chosen shortly after the Congress that elected him, replacing Paulo Mota Pinto, who had been in office for three months. had chosen again.
“I will be present at the next meeting of the parliamentary group, alongside the parliamentary group, as we have always been, and especially alongside its leader, who has done an exceptional job at the head of the bank and has met the challenges we have to be in front of a responsible opposition, consistent, serene, steadfast and committed to the goal of ruling Portugal,” he said.
On Thursday, the day of the bank meeting, the PSD scheduled a debate on health for the plenary, leading to discussion and vote on five resolutions on the subject.
Montenegro was elected leader of the PSD on May 28, a few months after the PS won an absolute majority in parliamentary elections with a term until 2026, beating Jorge Moreira da Silva (72.5% to 27.5%) in direct elections, a goal that had failed against then-President Rui Rio two years earlier.
On Friday, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento sent deputies a Whatsapp message saying that anonymously criticizing the media under anonymity is “profound cowardice that only harms the party”, following a news report in the Observer that reported that the parliamentary leader of the PSD allegedly withdrew a request last week on health grounds due to his wife’s professional connections to the target.
To the deputies, Miranda Sarmento denied this version and reiterated that the withdrawal of the request in question, reported by Lusa, was “only due to procedural problems” and took the opportunity to leave a “message” to the couch.
“That there are deputies who understand that I am not a good parliamentary leader, that I have no political profile and that others would be better leaders, I can accept without any problem if the criticism is direct and frontal,” he said. access.
But, he added, “that they do it in the papers, under the cover of anonymity, seems to me a deep cowardice that only hurts the PSD”.
This is another of a series of tension episodes between the bank – inherited from Rui Rio’s previous leadership – and the parliamentary leadership. At the group’s last meeting, on Thursday, Miranda Sarmento felt the need to “inform the delegates” in light of the news published in recent weeks about a possible early departure, assuring that he does not intend to to the European Parliament and intends to meet the deadline until July next year.
Source: DN
