“We need to completely change the paradigm and the relationship between the health sector and the social sector. Health and social security can no longer be at odds,” stated Pedro Nuno Santos.
In his speech lasting over half an hour at the public presentation of the PS candidates in Coimbra, which took place in the late afternoon, Pedro Nuno Santos emphasized that health and the social sector “must work together.”
Addressing the hundreds of party members who filled the Pavilhão Centro de Portugal, the Socialist leader noted that the life expectancy of Portuguese people has now increased, predicting that by 2050, about 40% of the population will be over 65 years old.
“This has consequences for the NHS [National Health Service] and the way we deal with the older population in our country. We have not adequately prepared either the country or the health sector for an aging society,” he asserted.
In his view, Portugal is “far from providing dignity and care to those who built the country,” highlighting the need for “community work at a local level.”
“Older people, while they can, prefer to stay in their homes, which incurs less expense for the Social State and the NHS itself. We need to have community proximity teams that support our older individuals, chronic patients, and those who need long-term care,” he emphasized.
According to Pedro Nuno Santos, this is also a way to reduce disease exacerbation episodes and hospital admissions.
“It is possible to improve the quality of life for our older people while we reduce our bill, or at least contain the increase in health care costs. Respect and dignity, but with positive consequences for health,” he pointed out.
Throughout his address, the PS secretary-general also conveyed a message to not interfere with the public pension system, which he described as “highly attractive” to the private sector managing pension funds.
“Let everyone contribute as they see fit from a private perspective. However, the public pension system we have in Portugal is a virtuous construction of intergenerational solidarity that we must share, maintain, preserve, and defend,” he concluded.
