“The government knew that winter was coming, that this weather was approaching. It should have prepared for winter and not just say now ‘get ready, we’re going to have some very bad times,'” said André Ventura to journalists during a visit to the Externato de Penafirme in the municipality of Torres Vedras.
A day after the Health Minister, Ana Paula Martins, claimed that hospitals within the National Health Service are prepared to handle the rise in flu cases expected in the coming weeks, André Ventura stated that “the minister ended up certifying her own incompetence.”
For the presidential candidate, the waiting times for urgent consultations, which reached up to 13 hours over the weekend, “are absolutely inhumane numbers.”
He added to this issue what he described as the delay of surgeries and prevention of consultations.
“We don’t need makeup, corrective things. What we need is to address the problems people have,” he asserted.
“If the government says everything is fine, that this is okay, that there is no problem with this, it’s because the government has disconnected from the people, lost any connection with the common citizen, and lives in a separate bubble,” he added.
The Health Minister assured on Sunday that the National Health Service is ready to respond to the predicted increase in flu cases in the coming weeks and revealed that almost 2.3 million people are vaccinated.
Ana Paula Martins explained that the Ministry of Health is following the seasonal response plan for winter. This includes measures to boost the capacity of the SNS during peak pressure periods, along with local contingency plans for each local health unit.
She acknowledged there might be “an increase in demand at hospital emergency services, health centers, and on the SNS24 helpline,” and that because of this, it is likely that there will be a need “to delay surgical activities, always maintaining urgent and oncological surgeries.”
