Women even report that they are physically prevented from accessing the service counter to apply at health centers and can have due monitoring in pregnancy and later childbirth.
The Observatory of Obstetric Violence (Egg PT) reported this Monday cases of refusals of care of immigrants by health professionals, as well as to impediment access to services by health centers security.
In a statement, the organization says that in the complaints it has received, women even report that they are physically prevented from accessing the service counter to sign up for the health centers and may have proper monitoring in pregnancy and later childbirth .
The PT egg believes that such impediments are motivated following the bills approved in December in the Parliament related to (NHS), who have downloaded to the Health Commission and are not yet in force.
In the statement, the organization expresses “profound concern” regarding access to NHS, specifically to gynecological and obstetric services, involving pregnancy surveillance, childbirth, voluntary interruption of pregnancy and family planning, by immigrant women (foreign) in Portugal, regardless of of being in a regular or irregular/resident and irregular/non -resident situation.
Alert that If they are approved as they were written in December and will be in force “will exclude immigrants whose validity of the residence authorization has ended, leaving many residents without health care.”
One of the proposals (PSD and CDS-PP) proposes that foreign persons in an irregular situation and non-residents have to have a proof of health care coverage and the documentation deemed necessary by the NHS, except in cases of urgency, and that , even in urgent situations, present these documents later.
Already the They foresee that foreign persons, statelessness and migrants without legalized situation, as well as applicants of international protection whose request has not yet been granted, have to pay to access the NHS, except in emergency situations.
One of them also determines that non -resident foreign citizens pay the moderating rates or the full costs of medical acts, including in cases of urgency, where there is prior reference by the NHS or urgent hospitalization.
“A clear discrimination in access to health”
The organization recalls that what is in force is that “everyone has access to the NHS” and cites the Health Bases Law and Decree-Law No. 52/2022, recalling that, besides the Portuguese citizens, they can also access to NHS National citizens of member states of the European Union or equivalent, domestic or state-of-the-art country, with permanent residence or in a stay, such as vacation, or temporary residence in Portugal.
“Also foreign persons requesting international protection – as well as their families – and migrants with or without their legalized situation, under the applicable legal regime, are entitled to access to NHS,” he insists.
O It also says that Portugal is welcomed by having a GDP growth above the average EU value, but “this is only possible due to the work of immigrants who chose Portugal as their new residence.”
The organization considers that the complaints received “report situations of violation of the law and that the lack of sanctions undermines the seriousness of the Portuguese legal system” and expresses the “greatest concern” with the “negative impact” that bills can have in health Public if they are approved, “as well as in the integration of migrant people in Portuguese society”.
Understands that bills represent “clear discrimination in access to health, violating the principles of equality and universal access to health, increasing the risk of maternal and child mortality for foreign/immigrant populations.”
