In a request addressed today to the head of the Health Commission, the hawkish MPs noted that the monitoring committee set up by the government in June in light of the successive temporary closure of obstetric and gynecological services in different regions of the country proposed to “focus responses in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, which will represent Closure of some services in several hospitals in the country.
They state that “this hypothesis was persistently promoted” by the commission’s coordinator, Diogo Aires de Campos, due to a lack of resources.
In a post on the social network Twitter, the BE coordinator considered that “apart from the CEO and other appointments, there is news in health that requires attention” and announced that the party wants to hear the new health minister in Parliament.
“Instead of restoring professionals and investing in the SNS, the closing of services has been cited as a response to physicians’ shortage of obstetric services,” he criticizes, ensuring: “We have not given up on the SNS.”
“The fundamental problem, therefore, is the shortage of professionals and, above all, the lack of measures to attract, recruit and retain specialist doctors and other health workers necessary to ensure the full operation of maternity and emergency rooms,” the BE considers in the application to Parliament.
Considering that the situation is “not new”, the party accuses the government of not doing anything “to improve the situation just because it did not want it.”
“It was in the Socialist government, a few years ago, to close many maternity and emergency rooms, after commissioning a technical committee to conduct a study. It is worrying that with each new problem, the government’s response is to close the services and not to strengthen the SNS, either by investing in equipment, or through hiring and improving health professionals’ working conditions, BE criticizes.
For blockers, “this is certainly not the path that should be advocated for the NHS and not the path that fits the population.”
“The shortage of professionals cannot be resolved by closing. Jobs will not improve by the ends. And most importantly, the provision of care to the population does not improve when services are closed. Access is much less “, defended the MPs in the order issued today.
Therefore, the bloc considers that “it is necessary that the Assembly of the Republic listen to the Minister of Health on this matter because it is necessary for the Government to clarify whether it agrees with the proposals to concentrate and close services, if it so desires. To proceed with these measures, services and the population that will be affected by This measure.”
In the document, the blockers note that “in the summer of 2019, the possibility of a gradual closure of obstetric emergencies was raised in the Lisbon region and the Tagus Valley,” and at that time, “the problem was, again, the lack of specialists to ensure all levels of operation of these services.”
“Three years have passed and the government has done nothing, thus preserving the possibility of shutting down SNS services, now in a more general and dramatic way because it can extend to the whole country,” they warn.
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