The PSD parliament leader ruled on Thursday that there has been a “significant deterioration in the public healthcare system” and defended that it is necessary to ensure the stability, sustainability and efficiency of the National Health Service (SNS).
“We have witnessed a significant deterioration in healthcare, both at the hospital level and at the level of health centers. We have more than one and a half million Portuguese without a GP, we have emergency situations that close and obstetric emergencies that close and force pregnant women to travel long distances. to have their child, we are desperately short of professionals in various fields – doctors, nurses, health technicians, assistants, administrative”he claimed.
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento spoke at the opening of a parliamentary conference organized by the PSD, on the theme “The exodus of health workers from the SNS” and believed that the “current situation of the SNS is something that should concern everyone as a country” .
The chairman of the PSD parliament group pointed out that “the SNS is the most important construct the country has built in the last 50 years, it is the most powerful tool of public policy to correct inequalities” and warned that “without the SNS, a large proportion of Portuguese do not have access to health care due to economic insufficiency”.
“And that is why it is necessary not only to maintain the stability and sustainability of the SNS, to guarantee its efficiency and to guarantee that all Portuguese, when they need health care, have access to this health care, not only in terms of of quality, but also of speed, so that they are treated and cured within what is possible in medicine”defended the deputy.
Pointing out that the SNS is “going through its most difficult moment”, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento outlined the diagnosis: “which results from the fact that over the last seven, eight years there has been a total absence, both of reforms and of measures that make it possible to improve the efficiency of the SNS, or to invest in the service itself”.
“The pandemic accelerated the degradation process, brought very great challenges, but today it is clear to all Portuguese that the SNS is not able to provide the answer that many Portuguese need when they need health care”orphan.
Miranda Sarmento felt that “this is also due to the fact that many health professionals currently do not find a career with the SNS attractive for various reasons”.
“Not only for financial reasons, but also for career development, job prospects, research, how to combine working time with leisure time and family time”summed up the Social Democrat.
The PSD parliament leader said that “more and more time and dedication” is being demanded from health workers, “but without public institutions providing the necessary compensation”.
The parliamentary conference “The exodus of health workers from the SNS”, organized by the PSD, will take place in the morning at the Assembly of the Republic in Lisbon, with the participation of representatives of the orders of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and psychologists, in addition to several trade unions and also testimonials from professionals who have left the SNS.
Source: DN
