The President of the Republic argued on Wednesday, after a meeting with informal caregivers in Entroncamento, that health issues must begin to be addressed from the “foundations” of the sector.
Speaking to journalists, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa clarified that there are two major problems in Health: political orientation and public service management.
“A political orientation is what gives this weight to the public, this weight to the social, and this weight to the private. How is it? On what terms? It is necessary, one day, to define this over some time,” the President said.
“Then, within the public, how is it managed? Does the ministry manage it, as was the case in the past? Does the executive committee, which is a public institution, manage it? Do the two manage it together? If tomorrow there is power given to the CCDR, to the regional committees, will the three manage it?” questioned Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, emphasizing questions that, for him, must be answered for the problems in Health to be solved.
“Defining this, in my view, is where we should start,” he highlighted. “In other words, we should not start a building from the roof. We should start from the foundations, the bases,” he noted.
“If we don’t start from the foundations, then everything starts to not fit. It’s like a puzzle in which no piece fits right,” considered the President of the Republic.
When asked if the current government should undertake a reform similar to that of Cavaco Silva in 1990 (which implemented the Health Basics Act for the first time), Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa responded that this would be “starting from the roof”: “And I want to start from the foundations.”
Recall that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made his assessment of the state of the Health sector on Thursday, October 30, determining that it is “complicated.” He accused the Government of the Democratic Alliance (AD) of a “hort-term” management with “grey areas.” However, he ended up supporting the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, who has been the target of persistent resignation requests.
In his intervention on the subject, the President of the Republic considered that “short-termism” prevails in health management, with “grey areas” between the responsibilities of the Government and the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (SNS).
