Government simplifies process of obtaining heavy medical equipment. Public hospitals have to request authorization and consider the new rule “unacceptable”.
Gamma cameras, oncological radiotherapy and digital angiography, among other heavy medical equipment, are now more easily acquired by private hospitals, in a kind of “green street”.
The preamble of was published in the Official Gazette of the Union on December 19, highlights the , and “reformulates and updates” the criteria established in 1995: heavy equipment was subject to authorization from the Ministry of Health, whether purchased by public or private healthcare establishments.
Now, only public hospitals need to make a prior authorization request, and private hospitals are only subject to making a notification.
In the decree-law, he writes that some heavy equipment that was, in the 90s, “of exceptional use as auxiliary means of diagnosis and therapy, has today become current use in everyday clinical practice“, hence the simplification of the process. The government “intends to speed up and reduce bureaucracy in the processes related to the installation of heavy medical equipment”.
But only for private companies, where the acquisition of the equipment “shall be subject to mere notification.”
“Establishing adequate coordination between, on the one hand, the public sector and, on the other, the private and social sectors, it is understood that only the installation and entry into operation of heavy medical equipment by public sector entities must be subject to prior authorization“, reads the new law.
Public hospitals must therefore send the request to the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS), which has one month to send the process to the Public Ministry, which has 45 days to issue the order authorizing or not authorizing the purchase.
Xavier Barretopresident of APAH (Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators), considers the “unacceptable” distinction. “If a good justification for the change is not presented, it is clearly a situation of unfair competition“, he guarantees. “I can’t find a good justification for this.”
“The answer cannot be to create asymmetries between public and private, because harms the public“, he says.”Human resources are scarce” and this distinction “will increase competition for their recruitment”.
Also Patrícia Barbosapresident of the Foundation for Health, says that the media was applied “without any technical basis known, which highlights its implications, risks and benefits”.
“Without this justification, it will only be possible to mention that the measure in question seems to deviate from the usual logic, which is to regulate the use of technologies that, if used improperly beyond their need, there will be costs for its users, but also for the health systemwith serious repercussions on financing”, he also says.
This situation seems to him to be “a loss of opportunity to discuss what is essential: the need to strengthen the SNS in all components, including technology”.
On the other hand, the president of the Portuguese Association of Private Hospitalization, Oscar Gasparargues that the change “represents the update of rules that are almost 30 years old and which were unanimously considered to be outdated and contrary to the health needs of the Portuguese”. It also says that “this change eliminates inappropriate constraints investment in heavy medical equipment.”
