The PCP secretary general opined on Tuesday that the government alone will not solve the problems in the National Health Service “if it does not want to”, accusing Minister Manuel Pizarro of wanting to dismantle it.
Paulo Raimundo went this morning to the Marvila health center in Lisbon, which opened in January this year and where almost 13,000 users have not been assigned a GP due to human resource constraints.
After arriving at the site around 7:45 a.m., the PCP Secretary General spoke to several users who had been waiting at the door of the health center since dawn. Some said it was the second day in a row that they had gone to the location where they needed care.
Several users complained about the lack of services, difficult access, lack of weather protection infrastructure or seating to wait for the health center doors to open at 8 a.m.
Speaking to journalists during these contacts with users, Paulo Raimundo argued that the government “has the conditions” and the money to solve the problems in the National Health Service (SNS) and “that it simply will not solve these problems if they don’t want that. “.
“There is a general crisis in the government’s policies. We have conditions, we have money, we have everything… The option is wrong, because the problem does not lie with the professionals, who are needed, with the conditions of the country, which are there. , it is the problem of wrong option that needs to be solved quickly”he said.
Paulo Raimundo particularly criticized the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, because he felt he was not doing enough in negotiations with the unions.
“The Minister of Health has a project, which is not intended to make this happen, but to dismantle these services,” he accused.
Among the measures he considered necessary, Paulo Raimundo argued that it is necessary to “create conditions in which doctors can establish themselves in the SNS”, noting that the PCP proposes a “50% salary increase” for doctors who decide in remain in the public sector.
“It is a concrete measure, it is not the propaganda that the government is making during these negotiations, which says that it will bring an increase of 30 percent, but we will see later in concrete terms that this has nothing to do with reality. “, he said.
The PCP Secretary General also specifically addressed the case of the closure of emergency maternity services, saying he did not know “how it is possible for the government to manage these interruptions in these services so easily.”
“I don’t even really understand how anyone in charge of the Ministry of Health can sleep easy with this reality,” he said.
Shortly after opening the doors of the health center, Paulo Raimundo gave a short speech in which he opined that the situation in Marvila is proof that “there is a brutal difference between what is the harsh reality of life and the government’s propaganda .
“The reality is this: 13,000 users without a GP, a reality for which there are no working conditions, no appreciation and no respect for their professionals, be they doctors, assistants, technicians, nurses. For users and for the professionals who work here, there are always promises”he said.
In statements to journalists, the PCP general secretary was confident that the various steps taken by users of the Marvila health center – on September 11 they held a vigil, with a new protest action planned for this Friday – “will yield results”. “.
“We cannot be faced with a government that responds so quickly to the problems of private healthcare, for example, solving things so quickly and so easily and then, faced with this situation, it is promise after promise,” he said .
Source: DN
