The president of the Order of Doctors defended yesterday, in Caldas da Rainha, the creation of a new National Health Service (SNS) to monitor the evolution and modernization of society, investing in a fundamental reform.
«We need a new NHS. The population structure has changed. We have a much older and more demanding population in terms of care. We have science, technology and medicine that have evolved a lot in recent decades, but it seems that our governments look at the SNS as they did 40 years ago,” Carlos Cortes told Lusa.
For the president, the country needs «a fundamental reform of the SNS, which integrates the needs of doctors, but also new organizational models», said Carlos Cortes, after a meeting with doctors from different specialties at the Caldas da Rainha Hospital, which is part of the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste (CHO).
According to the president, health intervention has been limited to «small patches and band-aids, which solve absolutely nothing, despite at the moment appearing to be a solution».
«Look at the problem with maternity wards, which has been going on for more than a year, the problem with urgency, which is getting worse and worse, the problem with primary health care, with more and more users without a family doctor. There is a need for a profound restructuring of the SNS and a rethinking of health in a modern way", ceasing to "live in the glories of the past" of the SNS.
«We have to improve the present and prepare the future of the NHS. Today, the SNS is a great urgency in the country. It is fundamentally based on the emergency service and that has to change quickly», he stated.
Carlos Cortes considered that the solution does not involve the creation of more Local Health Units (ULS), as «the worst hospitals», those that have «the most difficulties, are integrated into ULS», such as Beja, Portalegre, Santiago do Cacém, Guarda, Castelo Branco, Bragança and Viana do Castelo.
«Matosinhos is an exception because it is an urban ULS, where everything is in a city. We cannot compare the results of Matosinhos to the rest of the country», he noted.
Carlos Cortes met with doctors today in Caldas da Rainha, where general health problems are also felt.
«What was mentioned by several specialties were their difficulties in terms of human resources», he reported.
The doctors informed the president that much of the emergency work is carried out by service providers, however, a large part of the activity is focused on the emergency department, which prevents doctors from concentrating on another type of activity, namely in the ward, in consultations or in the scheduled surgical activity.
«If people don't have appointments, aren't treated well in hospital or don't have surgery at the right times, they end up worsening their health problem and then having to go to the emergency room. Some disorganization was also reflected in the CHO, which functions very little as a hospital center,” he revealed.
CHO doctors also called for the new hospital to be built “once and for all”.
«The priority is not where it needs to be, but that there is a hospital and conditions for doctors to settle in this area. I found doctors angry and upset because they did not have the right conditions to treat their patients. Despite everything, they give the best they have, even with the very little that the hospital center has had recently,” he said.
Carlos Cortes appealed to the Minister of Health to “quickly resolve the issue of the new hospital and create conditions for doctors to settle in this area”.
«These conditions are the same for the entire SNS: better working conditions for doctors, dignifying the doctor's role and valuing their career», he reinforced as a way of making the «SNS more competitive, being able to attract doctors and stem their leaving the SNS for the private sector or for emigration».
The Centro Hospitalar do Oeste integrates the hospitals of Caldas da Rainha, Peniche (both in the Leiria district) and Torres Vedras (in the Lisbon district).
It has an area of influence made up of the populations of the municipalities of Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Peniche, Bombarral (all in the Leiria district), Torres Vedras, Cadaval and Lourinhã (in the Lisbon district). It also covers, in the district of Leira, part of the municipality of Alcobaça (parishes of Alfeizerão, Benedita and São Martinho do Porto) and, in the district of Lisbon, the municipality of Mafra (with the exception of the parishes of Malveira, Milharado, Santo Estêvão das Galés and Pinheiro Sale).
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