The executive director of the National Health Service (NHS), Álvaro Almeida, said Wednesday in Parliament that it is “perfectly possible” a doctor to reach an annual remuneration of 400 thousand euros, provided that involved in additional surgical production in public hospitals. The statement was made during the Parliamentary Health Commission, regarding the case of a doctor from the local health unit of Santa Maria who will have received hundreds of thousands of euros for operating patients on Saturdays.
According to the official, this value is compatible with the current legislation and the effort required for those who collaborate in combating waiting lists. Still, he stressed that the specific case is being the subject of an investigation of the General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS), whose conclusions are not yet known.
“There may have been fraud, but it may not have been”
Álvaro Almeida was cautious in the answers about the specific case, remembering that there is no evidence of irregularities. “If there was no fraud (we do not know), it is perfectly possible that there is no fraud and a doctor who works a lot has compensation in the house of 400 thousand euros in a year,” he said.
According to the SNS executive board leader, it cannot be assumed, only based on this amount, that there was a lack of control or mismanagement. He also added that the final data of the inquiry will be fundamental to clarify the situation.
The role of additional production in the NHS
Representative Joana Cordeiro, from the liberal initiative, warned of “serious supervision failures” and defended greater inspection of remuneration mechanisms associated with additional production. However, Álvaro Almeida insisted that the amount earned does not prove by itself any irregularity.
The official explains that the integrated surgery management system system was created to recover waiting lists, allowing users faster access to surgical care. Professionals who participate in this additional production receive a payment proportional to the number of acts performed outside normal hours.
Monitoring is made by contracts, not by person
During the hearing, Álvaro Almeida also pointed out that the SNS executive direction “is not a central planner” and that its mission is to monitor compliance with the program contracts at the level of institutions and not individual professionals. “There are 150,000 people working at the NHS and it is not the executive direction that will control these 150,000 people,” he said.
According to the same source, the responsibility of checking payments is up to health facilities and their local management. Only in exceptional cases, such as this, does the DE-SNS be directly involved, namely through articulation with a.
Waiting for definitive answers
Despite the doubts raised around the case, the SNS director stressed that he does not want to precipitate judgments. “There may have been fraud, it may not have been. We do not know,” he said before the deputies.
Until the official conclusion of the inquiry, the possibility of a doctor earning 400,000 euros for extra work continues, in the eyes of the executive direction, to be legally admissible, provided that it is supported by clinical records, internal audits and validation of additional surgical production.
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