this Minister of Health PortugalMarta Feared submits her resignation after several months on the rope this Tuesday morning. The pressure from the doctors’ unions finally took effect after many meetings, including the resolution of the problem and the minister’s failure to respond to his demands. lack of staff in emergency services dozens of hospitals, especially gynecological diseases. Lack of staff, forcing patients to refer to other hospitals, a pregnant woman who died last week shortly after going to the hospital unsuitable place Lisbon. Months ago, another pregnant woman lost her baby after going to a closed emergency room.
The fight between Feared and the unions has been worsening since the end of last year, when the pandemic began to bring about a ceasefire in hospitals. That moment healthcare workers who have been struggling for months, covid-19 and with hundreds of extra hours behind them, they decided to stand in a situation they consider unsustainable. The Portuguese Administrator sought to respond to doctors’ requests by improving overtime pay and the approval of a new charter of the National Health Service (SNS), which seeks to improve coordination between hospitals and provide more autonomy. centers to employ staff.
However, the changes approved by the Government were not sufficient to keep Feared in office. Antonio Costa has not yet given a replacement name and everything indicates that it will not be a quick succession. In his statement this morning, the Prime Minister thanked the work carried out by the General Directorate of Health, which took office in 2018, especially during the “exceptional period of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic”. Feared has become one of the most visible heads of the Costa Government and one of the most powerful people on his team during the pandemic, even sounding like a joke. possible successor of prime minister but despite being affiliated with the Socialist Party for a year.
Opposition and union criticism
Representatives of both the doctors’ unions and the Physicians and Nurses Association reacted positively to Temido’s accusatory resignation. not knowing how to respond to serious problems Portugal has devastated healthcare. “He lived in a different reality when the Minister of Health said there was no shortage of doctors,” Jorge Roque da Cunha, president of the Association of Independent Doctors, told CNN Portugal. It’s also on the same channel, something supported by Miguel Guimarães, head of the Order of Physicians. The minister has not been able to find a solution to the very serious problems that currently exist in SNS,” he said.
The opposition was also quick to react to the resignation, taking the opportunity to blame the Costa Government, which has had a comfortable absolute majority in Parliament since last January’s elections. “A mother had to die for the minister to resign. This resignation represents the failure of the socialist government’s health policy, marked by arrogance and irresponsibility,” said Miguel Pinto Luz, vice-president of the main opposition conservative PSD party.