Health Minister Manuel Pizarro ruled out on Thursday the possibility, “at least in the short term”, of returning to a state of preparedness and imposing public health measures to fight Covid-19.
“In the interest of the peace of public opinion, there is no intention, nor the necessity, to return, at least in the short term, to measures involving the state of alarm or the imposition of public health measures. Manuel Pizarro in response to questions from journalists during the press conference at the end of the Council of Ministers.
The minister added that health authorities will “continue to monitor closely” the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic and all other common respiratory diseases over the winter.
An expert meeting will be held on Friday to inform “in technical detail” about the epidemiological conditions at national, European and international levels.
“Tomorrow we will update the epidemiological situation and after that we will announce our intervention plan for the winter,” he said.
Next week, Manuel Pizarro added, additional measures will be announced from the standpoint of the functioning of the National Health Service, “in response to what is a common seasonal difficulty with the increase in respiratory infections.”
“This year in Portugal, as in most European countries and as had already happened in the southern hemisphere, there was a certain expectation of some of the respiratory viruses” and therefore the vaccination plan was brought forward to September 7, among which almost two million Portuguese are already vaccinated against the flu and with the reinforcement of covid-19.
Vaccination is the “most relevant” measure for the minister to prevent these infections.
Asked about the surge in emergency care demand in recent days, he said it was a situation felt in all National Health Service hospitals for reasons related to respiratory infections.
“The truth is that, with some operational disruptions, which are very difficult to avoid in these circumstances, hospitals were able to respond appropriately,” he stressed, adding that “fortunately, the situation today is much calmer than in the past.” few days.
Minister admits option of GP cooperatives for transition period
The Minister of Health recognized the possibility of cooperatives of GPs in regions of the country that need these professionals most “for a transitional period”.
Manuel Pizarro had already admitted the creation of temporary Family Health Units (USF) model C during a hearing in the parliamentary committees on Budget and Finance and Public Health on Tuesday to respond to the lack of general practitioners, a possibility that the BE considered it would ” privatization” of primary health care.
Asked about this issue at the press conference at the end of the Council of Ministers this Thursday, the minister began by stating that the government has a “clear bet” on strengthening primary health care, with the aim of ensuring that all Portuguese have access to a family health team.
But, he said, “it is known that in some regions of the country, especially in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, there is a “lack of professionals” to achieve this goal.
“In this context, we are thinking of temporary and additional measures, including the possibility that physician co-ops can compete temporarily to deliver this level of care, until the largest-ever increase in the number of physicians in training in the specialty could take effect,” emphasized he.
Manuel Pizarro recalled that in 2023 there will be the highest number of vacancies ever (574) for training specialists in family medicine, lasting four years.
“The process of training professionals takes time and we need to make sure that in the meantime our responsiveness improves and only in this context does this opportunity exist,” emphasizes Manuel Pizarro.
“We are not talking about a privatization of the SNS, which would in fact be strange on the part of a government that is part of the tradition of creating a public, general and universal national health service,” concluded Manuel Pizarro.
The minister also stressed that strengthening primary health care means “taking to the end a very important reform” that they have promoted and created, at least for the past ten years.
It involves strengthening health centers, creating family health units, rejuvenating the professions associated with providing this level of care, doctors, nurses, clinical secretaries or other health technicians, he said.
During the parliamentary hearing, Manuel Pizarro emphasized that the government model for primary health care reform is based on the creation of USF Model A, which corresponds to traditional health centers, and on their transformation, “through organizational maturity”, into USF Model B , where professionals are paid according to performance.
The Family Health Units (USF) model C are based on established entities with organizational and financial autonomy and with a program contract with the regional health administrations.
Source: DN
