“Even though the Prime Minister has been stating otherwise, nobody believes it anymore!” declared the union in a statement.
The statement from the SEP follows Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s admission of his own directive for greater efficiency in healthcare, while denying that it involves cuts, and reaffirming confidence in Health Minister Ana Paula Martins, whose resignation has already been demanded.
Luís Montenegro addressed reports in the newspaper Público that alleged the Executive Directorate of the NHS advised hospitals to reduce expenses, even at the cost of slowing down consultations and surgeries. The Prime Minister stated that “the word cut is not correct” and clarified, “there is no directive to cut anything at all.”
In the statement, the SEP contends that “the use of the usual jargon of efficiency or waste prevention clashes with the concrete reality of increased constraints experienced by NHS institution administrations in 2025.”
For instance, it points out that “none of the Organizational Development Plans for Local Health Units have been approved so far,” preventing, among other things, the opening of competitions for access to higher ranks in various careers.
The union also emphasizes that “professionals are consistently faced with a shortage of materials and non-replacement of equipment that has ceased functioning due to years of use, which hinders good and improved practices.”
“The IT systems continue to have interoperability and functioning issues, which cause problems in the organizations’ operations,” it notes.
The union further states that important reports on medication policy have not been available for the past two years, blocking access to data on expenditures, types of expenditures, notably regarding innovative oncological medications and even those no longer under patents.
“Conversely, the shortage of healthcare professionals worsens without the Government taking effective measures to prevent the departure of current staff and attract more. On the contrary, the measures they present only serve to further degrade working conditions,” it criticizes.
The SEP argues that, given the reduced budget allocation for health in the State Budget, along with the statements from the Finance Minister, who considers hiring more workers for Public Administration a waste, “it is expected that the Government will uphold its claim not to withdraw money from the Social State to pay for the EU’s armamentist delusions that will ensure more profit for an industry that will only produce more disease.”
