The Prime Minister’s Office rejected involvement in the case of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins and said it “will forward the file received to the relevant ministry, in this case Health”, which it did on November 5, 2019. The information appeared following the controversy involving the President of the Republic in the case of the twins treated at the Santa Maria Hospital for spinal muscular atrophy.
“As is usually done, the Prime Minister’s Office forwards the received file to the relevant Ministry, in this case Health, after doing so on November 5, 2019, the date on which it informed interested parties through the same file about the given direction”, refers to the statement from the government’s cabinet, which was sent to TVI on Tuesday.
In the document sent to the Queluz de Baixo station, It is also stated that “the procedure followed by the Prime Minister’s Office in this case was exactly the same as that in all other communications”.
According to CNN, which had access to the correspondence that São Bento sent to the Ministry of Health, the Prime Minister’s office forwarded six letters to the guardianship that the Presidency of the Republic received on November 5, 2019, one of which: It went about the case of the treatment of the twins. Also according to CNN and TVI, no request from the twins’ parents reached São Bento directly, and the process was initiated through the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic.
Lacerda Sales denies having scheduled appointments in the twins’ case
According to TVI, the twins’ initial consultation was requested by a secretary of state from the director of the pediatrics department of Santa Maria Hospital.
Faced with this news, former Governor António Lacerda Sales declared on Tuesday that no Secretary of State has the power to schedule appointments and influence or violate the conscience and autonomy of any doctor.
Former Secretary of State for Health at the time of the events, Lacerda responded in this way to Lusa about his alleged involvement in the case of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins who received the drug Zolgensma – one of the most expensive in the world – at Hospital Santa Maria, in Lisbon.
António Lacerda Sales said that “no Minister of Foreign Affairs, nor anyone else, has the power to schedule appointments, nor to influence or violate the conscience or autonomy of any doctor.”
He also emphasized that “it would be very bad for any doctor to allow himself to be influenced, in his ethical commitment, by someone outside the institution or by an entity outside the institution.”
Previously, Marta Temido, then Minister of Health, assured in an interview with Público en Renascença that there had been no contact with the President of the Republic on this case, stating that the Head of State had forwarded other cases to the government. , a “normal” procedure.
“I have not had any contact with the President of the Republic regarding this matter, nor have I provided any guidance on the treatment of these children,” the former government official said.
Ministry of Health “of course” available to provide information
Also on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said it was “clearly” available to provide information.
The Secretary of State for Health, Ricardo Mestre, refused to comment on the case of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins being treated in Portugal, pointing out that the ministry is “clearly and as it has always been” available to cooperate in the research.
“The Ministry of Health is of course and as always available to provide any information requested by the competent authorities,” said Ricardo Mestre. “This situation is being investigated by the competent authorities,” he said.
Santa Maria’s doctors wanted to reconsider priorities in expensive treatments
Meanwhile, it became known that the doctors of Santa Maria Hospital who wrote to the clinical director in October 2019, when the case of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins was analyzed: They argued that it took courage to set boundaries and reconsider priorities when allocating expensive treatments.
In the letter, to which Lusa had access, the doctors of the Neuropediatrics Department of Santa Maria in Lisbon never directly addressed the case of these two children, nor whether or not they met the clinical criteria to receive a to receive treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, which at the time cost two million euros per patient.
They remember that choices are never easy, but that it is essential to measure their impact, and recall the economic difficulties that Portugal has faced in recent years, which have required public expenditure to be kept under control, and the efforts of health personnel to ensure that the National Health Service was responsive to citizens.
In this sense, they recall that people come to Portugal illegally every day with the sole purpose of receiving free healthcare, emphasizing that they do not refer to migrants waiting for legalization, but to people with a stable life in the countries where they live and who travel only for research, diagnosis and treatment purposes, because they recognize the quality of the services provided and no one is excluded from the system.
As an example, they also mention the birth of children from third countries who return to their country of origin after birth, screening and vaccinations.
Twins’ family lawyer denied any ‘wedge’
The lawyer for the family of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins treated at Santa Maria Hospital for spinal muscular atrophy denied the existence of any “wedge” and emphasized that the children’s access to treatment was one of the most time-consuming cases .
“It is important that they continuously raise awareness of the more than 30 children who are already receiving this drug in Portugal… My clients were the ones with the longest waiting times, precisely because of the complexity of the case and the fact that they were children who came from abroad. When you talk about a wedge, you think it must be an advantage, but there was no such thing, on the contrary. We had a longer wait than normal,” said Wilson Bicalho.
According to the lawyer, the children received the treatment in June 2020 and Infarmed’s permission for the use of the drug Zolgensma – one of the most expensive in the world – arrived on March 3, according to TVI/CNN. just two business days after submitting the request, on February 29.
In conversation with Lusa, The lawyer also emphasized that no one in the family knows the son of the President of the Republic, a day after Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa revealed that he learned about the case through an email sent on October 21, 2019 by his son, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa. Sousa, and that correspondence involving the Presidency of the Republic, ceased ten days later, leaving no knowledge of the follow-up given to the matter.
“Never [falaram com Nuno Rebelo de Sousa]. [A família] he does not even know the son of the President of the Republic,” he emphasized.
“We cannot say absolutely anything about the issue of the son of the President of Portugal because we have no idea about it. I can’t speak about his name, he hasn’t been introduced to us, I don’t know. I don’t know him personally and I don’t know what may or may not have happened. What I can say is that the case of these girls was a case of national commotion in Brazil, followed by more than 50,000 people at the same time. “It doesn’t bother me that this is a topic that is spoken about verbally between people and that knowledge can be achieved by someone,” Wilson Bicalho said.
The lawyer also assured that the family sent emails “to the most diverse centers in Portugal and that it was not an option to settle for a no”, because they felt that they were entitled to treatment, since the children have Portuguese nationality would have obtained. before diagnosis.
According to Wilson Bicalho, the naturalization process began in April 2019 and the diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy did not occur until “in September or October”, already after the process had been validated in Portugal.
Faced with ongoing investigations by the Public Prosecution Service and the General Inspectorate for Health Activities, the lawyer assured that “the family is available” to provide clarifications and emphasized that “it is in the interest of the family to be contacted by all authorities investigate the matter.”
However, despite indicating that the mother of the Portuguese-Brazilian children is available to make statements, Wilson Bicalho insists that the family is currently “not psychologically fit” to travel to Portugal.
Marcelo confirmed that his son contacted him about the twins
On Monday, the President of the Republic confirmed that his son had contacted him about the twins living in Brazil with spinal muscular atrophy and argued that the treatment of this case was neutral and the same as that of so many others.
In a statement at the Palácio de Belém, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa gave an account of the correspondence during the presidency of the republic on this case, in 2019, which started with an email sent to him by his son, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa: elements which he said were forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
According to the Head of State, it is “clear that the President of the Portuguese Republic, faced with a request from a citizen like any other, gives the most neutral order, the same as he gave in ‘n’ cases”, without there being “an intervention by the President of the Republic because he was or was not a son.”
“They will ask: what about after I become chairman of the Council of Ministers? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know how what happened next, I have no idea,” he added.
The twins’ case was revealed in a TVI report broadcast in early November, which said two Portuguese-Brazilian children came to Portugal in 2019 to receive the spinal muscular atrophy drug Zolgensma, which cost a total of around four million euros. euros.
According to TVI, there were suspicions that this had happened under the influence of the President of the Republic, who denied any interference in the case.
The case is being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office, the General Inspectorate of Health Activities (IGAS) and is also the subject of an internal audit at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Lisboa Norte, of which Santa Maria Hospital is part.
With Lusa
Source: DN
