Filipe Amorim / EPA
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
The “complicated” diagnosis of the state of health had no mention of Ana Paula Martins, the target of resignations. Head of State said what the Government should — and should not — do.
The President of the Republic today considered that “casuistry” prevails in health management, with “solutions for the very short term” e “gray lines” between the responsibilities of the Government and the Executive Management of the SNS.
Postponing the “complicated” diagnosis that he promised to the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, Marcelo warned that “after six months, a year, a year and a half, it is advisable to have a general frame of reference, without the exception of there always being emergencies”, he stated at ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, at the end of a conference on the 50 years of the Medical Service in the Periphery (SMP).
According to the head of state, the current scenario “is a dispersion of decisions, it is an exhaustion of decisions, they are solutions for the very short term or for the short term, and then it remains to be defined exactly what the long-term objective is”, which corresponds to “the path of stones, which is the most difficult path”.
Political agreement for the SNS
The President suggested a political agreement on the role of the SNSthe social sector and the private sector in health, so that there is a medium-term framework.
According to the head of state, the Government must first decide whether or not it wants to make an agreement, but “even without an agreement, it must one day make a decision about this: what should be the SNS, what should be the social sector, what should be a profitable private sector – with enough flexibility to think about interactions”.
“And what in the SNS, in terms of management, should remain publicand what in the SNS, in terms of management, can or should not be shared with the social sector or the private profitable sector”, he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argued that “without defining this with some clarity, it is very difficult to have a framework for political action, political action becomes a case-by-case basis”.
The President of the Republic commented that “it is increasingly difficult” to establish convergences and “cleavages” appear even “in matters as important as, for example, the definition of who is Portuguese, the definition of who who is not Portuguese can live in Portugal, the definition of foreign policy or defense or security policy, the definition of educational policy”.
Referring to the health sector, he lamented: “If the Government ends, someone else comes in with another health policy. Then someone else comes in, who has another health policy. There is no health policy that can withstandthere is not. Or rather, there is no health that can handle it.”
“Perhaps it is worth thinking that It is not a good idea every time a government changes to change policy in the field of health too“, he advised.
For the head of state, “the issues on which this convergence would be gained” are essentially two: “The vision we have of the national health system” and “the vision we have of the management of the NHS”.
Marcelo “showed that the Government failed”
The general secretary of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, considered that the President of the Republic has made “more evident that the Government has failed in its health policy” and “shows itself incapable of responding to the needs” of the sector.
“What I was able to understand, from what was conveyed to me in the statement, was that the President of the Republic ended up making it more evident that the Government failed in its health policy”, he defended.
The PS leader considered it evident that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “ends up certifying the words that everyone has said from the opposition”, that is, “that the Government has failed and is incapable of responding to needs”.
Regarding the concrete suggestion of a political agreement, Carneiro promised to “listen carefully to the words of the President of the Republic” and then, at an opportune moment and having already heard his comrades, he will respond “in a more extensive and profound way to what was said” by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
