Manuel Pizarro, 58, MEP, and António Lacerda Sales, 62, still Deputy Secretary of State to Marta Temido. Both are doctors – the first in general medicine and the second an orthopedist specializing in sports medicine (still active, according to their profile on the government website).
Both have some weight in PS district fixtures: Pizarro in Porto and Sales in Leiria. Pizarro was Secretary of State for Health from 2008 to 2011 and Sales has held the portfolio since 2019. They were also the two deputies elected to the AR. So they have somewhat similar professional and political profiles and are currently two of the names the PS is talking about for the replacement of Marta Temido in the Health portfolio.
It would be device choices and, as they are both career politicians, they would ensure public exposure, in addition to unconditional alignment with the Prime Minister. Governors who want to be reappointed to their party’s electoral lists are not inclined to autonomous audacity.
However, who seems to have the best curriculum for the job is another doctor, Fernando Araújo, 56 years old, also a physician (specialist in immuno-haemotherapy) and additionally a full professor. He is not a PS militant, but was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Health from November 2015 to October 2018 (the Minister was Adalberto Campos Fernandes and the Prime Minister António Costa).
The prime minister said he was in no rush to replace Temido. Until his departure, the latter will have to choose the new director-general of the SNS within two weeks.
At the invitation of Marta Temido, he has been President of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João (CHUSJ) since February 2019. His work here has been the subject of several awards, namely in all things related to the covid-19 pandemic. He regularly writes in the “Jornal de Notícias” and has become increasingly critical of the management of the SNS and the actions of the (still) minister.
On July 27, he signed an article calling the new overtime rating rating for emergency room physicians purely and simply “i-na-pli-able.” He also objected to an ordinance establishing compensation bonuses for public managers of the SNS, refusing to grant them. Because, to quote Camões, “the weak king makes the strong people weak” and as long as “the troops are not valued, the generals cannot be rewarded”, risking “creating mistrust, demotivation and chaos in the army” . Curriculum as a doctor, scientist, teacher and SNS manager is not lacking. Nor critical thinking – which may contribute to not getting elected. In any case, it is not known whether he would accept the invitation, if it did.
The list of ministers also includes two other former secretaries of state: one is Rosa Matos, 60 years old, hospital administrator, who was Secretary of State for Health between 2017 and 2018 (when married to PS member Carlos Zorrinho, signed with her surname man). He ran public hospitals for six years (2006-2011) and headed the ARS do Alentejo.
The other former Secretary of State is Luís Goes Pinheiro, 47, who held the Administrative Modernization portfolio for one year (2018-2019). He now heads the Department of Health’s Shared Services, but is someone whose career has developed primarily in the Justice and Home Affairs sectors. He has a law degree and specializes in administrative simplification and e-governance.
A surprising choice could be that of anesthesiologist Rui Guimarães, whose leadership of Centro Hospitalar Gaia/Espinho was commended, as he had been when he was clinical director in Barcelos (leading an innovative program to reduce false emergencies).
Source: DN
