Filipe Amorim / Lusa
The Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins
Ministry of Health choices are being criticized due to lack of experience in administering local health units.
In recent months, the appointment of presidents to Local Health Units (ULS) Administration Councils (ULS) No experience in hospital management It has generated controversy. At least three government nominees have no background in hospital administration, raising questions about the adequacy to lead structures with tens of millions of euros.
Among the most notorious cases is Rui Manuel Amaro Alves, president of ULS de Castelo Branco since November, which is Degree in Geography and doctorate in regional and urban planning, without history in health.
Manuel José Santos de Carvalho, a specialist in general and family medicine and president of ULS in the region of Leiria since January, also has no experience In hospital management, despite having coordinated a family health unit.
João Pedro Marques Gomes, PhD in Economics And with an extensive academic path -related academic path, it assumes the leadership of the ULS of Cova da Beira without prior experience in hospital administration, says.
The legislation does not require administrators to have been hospital managers, but the National Health Service Statute (NHS) determines that appointed to have training in administration or management, preferably in health, and proper professional experience.
For Xavier Barreto, president of the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators (APAH), the lack of specific experience It’s worrying. “No private company names the top management someone who does not know the sector,” he said.
In addition to controversial appointments, ULS instability has been evident since the current government has taken office. Eleven boards of directors have already been dismissed or resigned, the latest in. In some cases, administrators claim lack of conditions to continue or lack of support.
