This Wednesday at 10.30 am, the first conference of parliamentary leaders of the second legislature of the current legislature (the 15th) has been convened. Appointments are being made for the coming weeks. It is already known, however, that the first plenary session after the parliamentary holiday will take place on the 15th morning. And the main theme will be a ‘thematic debate’ devoted exclusively to National Health Care (SNS) issues.
Manuel Pizarro, portfolio holder, is one of the most troubled ministers of the moment. The closure of emergency services due to a shortage of doctors is in the news every day, in the most diverse parts of the country. And the legal status of the new director of the SNS has yet to be settled.
Yesterday BE demanded urgent clarification of the dismissal of six midwives from the Hospital de Santa Maria, and asked for parliamentary hearings of these doctors, as well as of the health minister and the board of directors of that hospital department.
According to BE’s request, which calls for these urgent hearings in the parliamentary health committee, “the situation in the obstetric service of Hospital de Santa Maria (CHULN) had been deteriorating for several weeks”. “The announcement of the closure of the maternity ward, which was not communicated or agreed with the teams, the dismissal of professionals by the Board of Directors over a disagreement, the false allegations of low ‘productivity’ to the teams that worked so many at times 500 or 600 hours left to guarantee the full functioning of the services, the forced relocation of these professionals to another hospital or the deterioration of care conditions,” the blockers said.
BE also recalled that given this situation, it has “requested entities to be heard, questioned the ministry, called on the PS and the government to have common sense and to abandon the path of destruction on which they gambled”. ‘All in vain. Apparently, the arbitrary layoffs, the destruction of the team, the closure of the maternity ward, the deterioration of care, the ridicule of health workers, were all no accident. It was purposeful. implemented, supported by the government, at the same time as the SNS was opened to private maternity hospitals and more and more births were transferred to them”, the party charged in the application, signed by deputy Catarina Martins. For BE, “with the departure of this professionals the already critical field of obstetrics even poorer” and “the scales already made at the cost of hundreds and hundreds of overtime will become even more difficult” .
“Let’s leave the words alone, Dr. António Costa, stop saying you are a doer and do it, stop saying you want to make and execute a contract. Lower taxes, there are conditions to lower taxes, just don’t lower taxes. if you don’t want to.”
After the Leaders’ Conference, Parliament’s Standing Committee meets in the afternoon (a scaled-down version on the scale of the plenary session, which operates during parliamentary holidays). The reading of the message of the President of the Republic to the deputies is scheduled, justifying the return of the decree with the “More housing” program. And then there will be the ‘political statements’, without a closed theme, in which the parties will set the tone for their priorities.
At the initiative of the PSD, the issue of taxes will be one of the hot topics in the reopening of parliamentary work – and also serve as a kind of warm-up for the debate on the state budget for 2024, which will start in mid-October.
Yesterday, the president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, said again that there are conditions to lower the IRS now. “Let’s leave the words alone, Dr. António Costa, stop saying you are a doer and do it, stop saying you want to make and execute a contract. Lower taxes, there are conditions to lower taxes, just don’t lower taxes. if you don’t want to,’ he challenged.
Rentree socialist
Tonight, in Évora, where the “Socialist Academy” opens, António Costa will award his Rental and he will have the opportunity to say again to the Social Democratic leader that the PS only admits that the IRS will be reduced in 2024, discussing the terms of this reduction in the state budget debate.
The leader of the Socialists is expected to cheer on his Madeiran comrades involved in the campaign for the regional elections due to take place on September 24. However, the national PS has no expectation that the result will be anything other than the same as always: a victory for the PSD (which continues in alliance with the CDS-PP).
Source: DN
