Minister admits "lack of coordination" between ministry and SNS 24
Health Minister Ana Paula Martins admitted this Monday that "SNS 24 needs to be improved," noting that this service "is not the responsibility of the Ministry of Health," but rather of an operator. "We have a meeting scheduled with Altice to discuss the strict clinical supervision of the line and the people who must be truly qualified to work there," the minister announced in an interview with SIC Notícias, which began on SIC's Jornal da Noite program.
Ana Paula Martins admitted that "more training" is needed in SNS 24 and that "quick intervention is needed to make improvements," as emergency services need to be organized "to know what is available and where" and thus coordinate the availability of health services. She says that the introduction of Artificial Intelligence into this system, which could streamline access to this information, is "delayed."
Still on the SNS 24 hotline, and more specifically the SNS Pregnancy hotline, the minister says that computer systems need to be upgraded to identify "which delivery rooms are available." " This communication has been severely lacking, and there's clearly a lack of coordination between the Ministry of Health and SNS 24 ," the minister admitted. She adds: "We overloaded the hotline with the issue of SNS pregnancy, but it has already diverted hundreds of thousands of cases to primary care services."
Regarding obstetrics and gynecology services, the Minister of Health assured in the interview that maternity hospitals will not be closed. "We will not close maternity hospitals, which are a complex of services with a very varied typology and which are linked to primary care," she promised, referring to the "investment of millions in requalification" of these services.
"All maternity wards will remain open," he assured again, leaving no room for doubt, explaining that the focus will be on the "pre-triaged emergency" model, which has been tested so far. He also added that the results of the experimental model—the SNS pregnant line—"will be presented to the committee" soon, stating that they show good results and that the model should be expanded nationwide.
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"We are better this year than we were last year, but we can't say we are well, because to be better than we were we have teams and workers, especially at this time, overloaded," said Ana Paula Martins in the interview with SIC, guaranteeing that "not all doors are closing" and that this reality of emergency room closures in the summer "is a normality that cannot be normalized."
Regarding the departure of doctors from the NHS, the minister said that many were lost "due to demographics," but also highlighted the "pandemic as a factor that forced several health professionals around the world, including in Portugal, to change professions."
Ana Paula Martins believes that the shortage of professionals "will not be resolved in one legislative term" and promises to focus on ensuring the organization of services while efforts to increase recruitment are underway. She also recalled the full-time dedication plan, created by the Socialist government, which, in her view, "can still be improved and extended to other types of incentives."
Regarding the new government rules that restrict doctors' access to work, the minister reported that "213 million euros are currently being spent on providing medical services", noting that of these services "42% to 44% are carried out by private companies" and the remainder by individual professionals.
He asserts that the ministry does not want to harm doctors, but rather "ensure fairness in what is paid per hour to a temporary worker or a doctor who is part of a team," highlighting the significant difference in values, which in the case of temporary workers can reach 90 euros, while for a doctor in a regular team it does not exceed 36 euros.
Regarding the increase in doctors' salaries, he recalled that this process began under the previous government and that "a result has already been achieved, although there is still a lot of work to be done."
Still on the controversy surrounding breastfeeding leave, Ana Paula Martins said this Monday that this is a right that "has been determined for a long time based on scientific criteria and recommendations that the Directorate-General for Health itself has issued."
"I regret that this issue, as with others, generates a lot of misunderstanding. Nowhere in the law does it say that a woman cannot breastfeed her child until the age of two, " the Health Minister argued, adding that what is being asked is simply "proof of this right that women have."
Contrary to the idea that the government wants to restrict workers' right to breastfeed, she emphasizes that she advocates for "encouraging breastfeeding." "This is the work we need to do, and it's the work nurses do better than anyone else in health centers to ensure breastfeeding training," she argued.
Regarding the government's announcement of a health care fee waiver in areas affected by the fires, Ana Paula Martins responded to Marta Temido, saying she herself "shuddered" when she heard the "comment from the former minister who is familiar with the legislation she created." The former Socialist minister had said she "shuddered" at Luís Montenegro's announcement about the waiver of user fees, which have not existed since 2022, except for non-referenced services. The government later clarified that it was referring to fees charged for non-referenced services.
“Even today, we still have user fees for all emergencies that are not referred,” noted Ana Paula Martins, detailing the “revenue of 23 to 24 million in user fees” coming from these users.
"What would happen if these populations, who were severely affected, who were left without homes, clothes and medicines, had to pay user fees because they didn't call the SNS 24 line," the Minister of Health added.
He says this is "positive discrimination" and that the "entire country stands in solidarity with these people." "It's more than fair," he assures, noting the need for pulmonology and internal medicine consultations among affected populations and firefighters.
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