André Kosters / LUSA
The Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, talks to a user at the new Catujal Health Unit
In fact, what was opened was the Catujal health center, in Loures. Ana Paula Martins listened to users and responded.
The new Catujal health centerin Loures, was opened this Tuesday with complaints of users to the Minister of Health and calls for them to be hired doctors and nurses to guarantee “decent service” to the population.
Before the start of the inauguration ceremony, a user, visibly angry, addressed the mayor of Loures, Ricardo Leão, reporting that her husband died on Christmas Eve at Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, where he was hospitalized and said he had been mistreated, complaints that she conveyed then to the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins.
“He died and they didn’t take care of my husband. Did you understand? They didn’t take care of my husband. You should check the yellow unit [urgentes] do Beatriz Ângelo Hospital and how they treat patients. My husband even told me that he they beat,” he said angrily to the minister.
Serenely, Ana Paula Martins offered to speak to the user, but she replied that there was no need to talk: “I just wanted to vent to you”.
Given this attitude, the minister said that the appeal was registered publicly, stressing that he was not ignoring the problems that many hospitals face.
“We naturally assume this responsibility. Thank you for your outburst and your testimony. What I also want to say directly, eye to eye, as he also had the same loyalty towards me, is that what I do every day, and what was asked of me by the Government, is that I work from morning to night to overcome these situations” , he declared.
At the ceremony, another user stood up in the crowd and said: “There are no doctors. What do we do, where do we go? What did they come to open, a museum? There are no doctors!” The minister responded: “We are doing everything, together with the city hall and the Local Health Units, to be able to bring in family doctors.”
Before this situation, the minister received a open letter of the Public Service Users Commission Camarate, Unhos and Apelação in which it states that the population was satisfied to have a health center with “decent facilities”, but regrets “the lack of doctors, with there being only one family doctor for around 13 thousand inhabitants”.
Users demand that the Government take measures to ensure the placement of the necessary health professionals for “an effective response” to the population, reducing the need for hospital emergencies.
This appeal is also made by Ricardo Leão who said there are around 60 thousand users in Loures without a family doctor, arguing that 40 family doctors are needed, 20 in each local health unit, to provide an effective response.
“The municipality of Loures is doing its part, which is to build health centers, and now it expects and demands that the Government does its part, not only in terms of doctors”, but also in terms of infrastructure, said the mayor, telling that on Monday, “it really rained” at the Sacavém health center.
For Ricardo Leão, “the only way” to reduce “the emergencies at Beatriz Ângelo Hospital, which are scandalous, shameful”, is to have a good primary health care network.
A minister acknowledged that there are several health centers “in absolutely undignified conditions”which were transferred, as part of the transfer of powers to the municipalities, and now we have to “address this situation”.
Regarding human resources, he said that doctors “are fundamental”, but highlighted the role of nurses and family nurses who provide very important care, stating that “more and more progress will have to be made”.
Operating since December 12, 2024, the Personalized Health Care Unit replaced the Appeal and Nails units.
Rosa Valente de Matos, president of the São José Local Health Unit, which encompasses this unit, said she believes that these new facilities will help attract more professionals, recognizing that they are still not enough to serve more than 10 thousand users in these parishes.
The unit has four doctors providing services to provide teleconsultations with the population without a family doctor.
“We will continue to increase the offer of teleconsultations without ever deviating from our main objective, which is to establish a family health unit in this location, he highlighted.
