“The Local Health Unit (ULS) of Santa Maria, in terms of the proposed payment values to the teams, will have spent around 40 million euros over these three years and a quarter,” stated Carlos Carapeto to the Health Committee deputies.
The head of the Health Activities Inspectorate-General (IGAS) was heard at the request of the Liberal Initiative regarding additional surgery production, a scheme that offers incentives to healthcare teams to reduce waiting lists, in the dermatology department of ULS Santa Maria.
This pertains to the alleged misuse of the Integrated Management System for Surgical Patients (SIGIC), which reportedly allowed a doctor to receive hundreds of thousands of euros for operating on patients on Saturdays, prompting IGAS to initiate a disciplinary inquiry that has yet to reach a conclusion.
Simultaneously, the inspectorate-general has opened an audit process into the additional surgical activity within the National Health Service, covering the 39 ULS and the three oncology institutes, having already collected and processed the data provided by all hospitals.
Following this data collection, Carlos Carapeto announced that specific audits at each of the 39 hospitals will initially cover a group of ten local health units, selected through indicators of activity in terms of additional production compared to normal activity, with the ULS of Santa Maria and Braga already being chosen.
“The specific audits at each ULS will surely begin later this month, as we now have all the data necessary to select the first ten,” the inspector general added.
The president of the Hospital of Santa Maria stated today that surgeries conducted in additional production, aimed at reducing waiting lists, are subject to 12 automated control moments, a system he deemed rigorous.
Carlos Carapeto detailed that hospitals within the National Health Service were asked for data on base and additional production from the beginning of 2022 to the end of the first quarter of 2025, to provide a “comprehensive system snapshot and to prioritize the ULS” that will be audited.
He further disclosed to the deputies that approximately 200 audits have been conducted since September 2020, resulting in 1,650 recommendations, 36.5% of which were directed at the internal control system of the ULS, “because a part of the solution lies there.”
He also advocated for the need to professionalize internal auditing of the ULS, through enhancing capacities, skills, personnel numbers, and the evaluation culture within each health unit.
During today’s hearings, which also included the president of the ULS Santa Maria, Liberal Initiative deputy Joana Cordeiro emphasized that the party does not question the SIGIC, which she considered crucial for reducing waiting lists, but seeks clarity on whether the Santa Maria hospital case was isolated or if it affects other hospitals as well.
