The clarification by António Gandra de Almeida to the Lusa news agency came a day after TVI/CNN Portugal reported an investigation by the Inspectorate-General of Health Activities (IGAS), which allegedly found that he authorized, while serving as executive director of the NHS (between May 2024 and January 2025), a payment per hour rate higher than stipulated for medical services, which he himself rendered at the urgency of the Local Health Unit (ULS) of Guarda under a contract of 29,000 euros.
Instead of the anticipated 40 euros per hour, he received 55 euros, an option permitted by law that requires authorization from the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service.
To Lusa, Gandra de Almeida assured that he was not advantaged by the dispatch he signed, stating that he received payment for services rendered at ULS Guarda in 2023.
“The dispatch was to validate something retroactively, but it did not interfere, nor did I receive more” for the service provided, he stressed.
In a written response, he explained that “the Executive Directorate does not authorize payments,” but merely increases the hourly rate paid to doctors.
“The authorization for the increase did not identify the parties involved, and it was executed in the second half of 2024. It was a generic authorization, like several other dozen identical authorizations and as such, when I signed it, I did not have the knowledge or perception that it covered me,” he emphasized.
The former ‘chief’ of the National Health Service, who left his position due to a controversy over payments considered undue, sees his name involved in a new controversy: he allegedly received extra payments authorized by himself after becoming the CEO.
Notícias ao Minuto | 20:46 – 27/06/2025
He stated that when he became aware that the authorization also covered him, in February/March, he immediately informed, on his own initiative, the current executive director, Álvaro Almeida, who annulled the prior authorization.
According to the doctor, the contracts made have a limit on the number of hours which translates to an amount, but this does not imply completing all hours or being paid the total amount.
Gandra d’Almeida further mentioned that all questions will be answered to IGAS, noting that in the report’s recommendations “there is no proposal for a disciplinary process.”
He also criticized the fact that the preliminary report of the Inspectorate-General of Health Activities was released while it is still in the adversarial phase.
“It is shameful. Everything is wrong, besides involving disciplinary processes against other people, not me, and as such it should be confidential,” he argued.
According to TVI/CNN Portugal, the case was revealed during the investigation ongoing at IGAS about alleged irregular accumulation of functions by Gandra d’Almeida when he was a director of INEM North, a position he held between 2021 and January 2024, before being appointed as executive director of the NHS in June of that year.
It indicates that the contract signed with ULS Guarda and the company created by António Gandra d’Almeida, Raiz Binária, pertains to services provided by him between March 1 and July 3, 2023, at the urgency of Guarda, as a specialist in general surgery amounting to 29,000 euros.
