Chega wants to hear from former Secretary of State for Health António Lacerda Sales in Parliament about the twins who underwent treatment at Santa Maria Hospital, also arguing that the President of the Republic should provide additional clarification.
Chega’s leader, André Ventura, said this in the Assembly of the Republic the party will urgently summon Lacerda Sales to parliament “since, according to publicly published information, it was this public official who was the intermediary between a request from a sovereign body and the hospital itself [Santa Maria]”.
At issue is a TVI report, broadcast at the beginning of November, according to which two Portuguese-Brazilian twins came to Portugal in 2019 to receive the drug Zolgensma, one of the most expensive in the world, for spinal muscular atrophy, which in total amounted to a total of four million euros.
According to TVI, there were suspicions that this had happened under the influence of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who, however, denied any interference in the case.
André Ventura asked the head of state for clarification and stated so the party “decided” to question Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on this subject, “in writing” and “through the services of Parliament” — figure not provided for in the Rules of Order of the Assembly of the Republic.
When asked about the procedural rules for this, the President of Chega replied that “the Rules of Procedure do not allow the President to be called before parliamentary committees” and that “within the scope of the good relationship that exists, or should exist, between the Assembly and the president “, the party chose to “submit a written request to which the President is not obliged to respond, but which may be useful even for the President himself to respond to”.
According to the Chega leader, “what has been reported is an external, undue influence at the Hospital Santa Maria for a treatment that was not necessary under the circumstances and that placed a high burden on taxpayers.”
Ventura emphasized that, “whether or not there was any action by the President of the Republic,” the alleged influence “could never materialize or manifest itself without someone from the government carrying it out,” and issued a appeal to the Socialist majority to approve the hearing request. Lacerda Sales, but also the previously presented initiative of the Liberal Initiative to listen to former minister Marta Temido.
Chega will also urgently summon the board of directors of the Garcia de Orta hospital and the president of the Order of Physicians to parliament, after this order classified the situation in the emergency department of this hospital in Almada as “very serious”. Team leaders resigned because the minimum safety conditions for users were not guaranteed.
Ventura defended that the government “cannot be held hostage” in March’s parliamentary elections to “do nothing about health”, and urged the executive branch to negotiate with health workers, especially doctors and nurses.
Source: DN
