Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Health Jamila Madeira assured on Wednesday that she never had any knowledge of the case of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins who were treated at Santa Maria Hospital in 2020 for spinal muscular atrophy.
Speaking to Lusa, the former governor – who worked at the Ministry of Health between October 2019 and September 2020, at the same time as former Minister Marta Temido and former Foreign Minister Lacerda Sales – admitted that the communications from the Civil House of the Presidency from the Republic to the Prime Minister’s Office were then forwarded to the respective ministries, but did not reach the State Secretaries.
“Nothing for me. Clinical cases did not go through my office. Initially they did not go through the ministry, but much less through my office. Only questions about financing or things like that.”declared Jamila Madeira, and continued: “I have never had any requests from the Prime Minister’s office in my office. If there have been requests from others, I cannot comment on them, I don’t know.”
Speaking to Lusa, he reiterated that he was not aware of any presentations of specific clinical cases reaching the Ministry of Health asking for a solution.
“Not at all. Neither the hardest nor the easiest. I have no knowledge of it whatsoever. I don’t admit that it was normal… Hospitals have the autonomy to make clinical decisions and they are made in that context, all other is what happens, speculate in the press”he noticed.
He also emphasized that since he was an economist and not in the clinical field, the approaches he received from hospitals were generic and mainly related to budgetary issues.
Asked about the alleged indication that the appointment for the twins at Santa Maria Hospital had been requested by a foreign minister, Lacerda Sales defended on Tuesday that “no foreign minister has the power to schedule appointments.” the former ruler simply indicated that this was not practical for him.
“Am I surprised? I’m not, and I’m not. I don’t know if it was practical or not, it wasn’t for me. But for others I can’t speak”he said.
Jamila Madeira went even further and assumed that the only case she was aware of in this context was the one involving baby Matilde, in the summer of 2019, and only through the media.
“I was never aware of anything related to this case and all I heard from the press was Matilde’s, even before she was Foreign Secretary. In fact, it is the first and even generates the first special permission in the previous one. executive, which is always promoted through the hospital and there is a protocol that then goes to Infarmed… Nothing goes through the Ministry of Health “In summary.
The twins’ case was revealed in a TVI report, broadcast in early November, according to which two Portuguese-Brazilian children came to Portugal in 2019 to receive the anti-spine drug Zolgensma, one of the most expensive in the world. muscle atrophy, which totaled four million 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 and the General Inspectorate of Health Activities and is also the subject of an internal audit at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Lisboa Norte, of which the Hospital de Santa Maria is part.
Source: DN
