José Sena Goulão/Lusa
The cost-benefit ratio of having an executive director for the Unified Health System (SUS) has been discussed for a long time. This Sunday, Adalberto Campos Fernandes and Luís Marques Mendes once again appealed to a reflection on the subject. Carlos Cortes asks for technical and non-partisan political choices.
The position of executive director of the SNS relaunched the debate about the real usefulness of the existence of this governing body.
This Sunday, in statements on the radio, the former Minister of Health Adalberto Campos Fernandes repeated an idea he has been saying for a long time: the creation of the executive director of the SNS is a “mess”.
“We need to reflect on whether, in fact, this model is useful. I would say one word that this is a huge mess. And the results of the mistakes were written in the stars for a long time: they would happen”, he pondered.
“It was an inevitable outcome”, he repeated, noting that “no personal assessment is at stake”, but rather a structural problem.
“It has been clear for a long time that the creation of this executive director figure, suddenly, distorted and in some way created a disturbance in the logic of health administration. Sooner or later, it would have this type of consequence”, he stated, commenting on Gandra D’Almeida’s dismissal.
As he had done two weeks ago, while still far from the current controversy, the former health minister asked for a more in-depth reflection on the usefulness of the SUS’s executive management.
Also the State Councilor Luís Marques Mendesin his usual commentary space on Sunday night, in SIC’s Jornal da Noite, called for a debate on the “cost-benefit ratio of CEO do SNS”.
Questioning whether this executive body really makes sense, he himself replied: “I have the biggest doubts. I never really agreed with the creation of this commission. I don’t see any real use for hospitals and patients“.
Furthermore, cites the weekly, the former leader of the PSD considered that the position is prone to “conflicts with other entities.”
Precisely in relation to party-political “guerrillas”, the president of the Order of Doctors, Carlos Cortesconsidered that the selection of new director-SNS executive it will have to be technical and not political-partisan.
The director said that an executive director must be someone “who knows the health system very well, firstly, but, above all, necessarily, the SUS” and who “can go through changes in governments and be always focused, dedicated to the executive direction of the SUS, without political party interference”.
“The appointment has to be fundamentally technical and not, as we often see, party-political appointments, which is the last thing that should be done in this sector and, above all, at the head of the executive direction of the National Health Service”, considered Carlos Cortes, speaking to Lusa, this Saturday.
“On Monday, there has to be a name to be presented by the Government, because we are not exactly in a calm situation. There are huge concerns about the SNS, and we effectively need strong leadership to resolve the problems”, he maintained.
Unlike Adalberto Campos Fernandes and Luís Marques Mendes, Carlos Cortes considers that “the creation of the executive direction was very importantbut it has to be a top organization, from a technical point of view, that implements the guidelines of the Ministry of Health, but that has a great management capacity, an operational capacity, together with the Local Health Units, together with the hospitals, next to health centers”, he defended.
Blame thrown at Ana Paula Martins
Mariana Mortágua accused the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martinsof being responsible for “installing a network of private and corporate interests in the ministry” and demanded her resignation.
The coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda said that her party will schedule a question in the Assembly of the Republic on health for February 6, an initiative that follows the dismissal of the executive director of the SNS.
“We want the minister in the Assembly of the Republic to respond for the SNS disaster and also for web of interests that he created within the Ministry of Health and which we now see falling, one by one, due to their incompetence, their greed and the project they have to privatize the SNS”, he said.
