Marta Temido stated on Sunday evening on CNN Portugal that the resignation of Ana Paula Martins will not solve the issues facing healthcare. However, she believes that the current state of the National Health Service (SNS) is “much more serious” than what led to her own resignation.
“There is always a level of political responsibility that cannot be ignored. Whether one wants it or not, it’s on the table, and the voters are at home evaluating it. Another matter is whether there is no technical responsibility that first needs to be assessed and explained in terms of the specific details of each case,” she began by saying.
For the socialist Member of the European Parliament, these are “two discussions that do not overlap.” “There is always constant information that an assessment is underway by the competent authorities, whether it is the Health institutions or the Public Ministry. Political responsibility is a different matter.”
According to Marta Temido, “a resignation in such cases has much to do with the nature of the officeholders”: there are cases where “political responsibility is only determined in an electoral context,” and there are others, such as her situation, where those in political positions “feel it is possible to send a signal.”
This, she believes, is “also related to their assessment, their relationship of trust with the population.” “What I know is that, in my experience as Minister of Health, the Portuguese got used to trusting me. So when I felt that this trust might be at risk, I decided to send a signal, a sign of respect for the trust that the Portuguese had in me. With other officeholders, the assessment might be different,” she admits.
Despite acknowledging that Ana Paula Martins’ resignation will not solve the healthcare problems, Marta Temido asserts that the current situation of the SNS “is much more serious and disturbing than the evaluation of one case or another.”
“It is more serious and more complex. In fact, the recent words of the President of the Republic demonstrate this. We are facing a Government that claims to break with inertia, yet in the healthcare field, it does not present a line of reform,” the socialist declared.
