Free accuses Health Minister of “kicking responsibilities”

O Livre accused the Health Minister today of “kicking responsibilities for others” after the deaths registered in Portimão and BE required urgent hearing from the president and former president of the Algarve Local Health Unit.

“What seems to us is that once again the Minister of Health kicks the responsibilities to others and we have long said that she is not able to continue. Once again we see that it is so”, said the spokesman for Free Isabel Mendes Lopes in statements to journalists in the Assembly of the Republic.

The parliamentary leader also referred to the fact that Ana Paula Martins announced on Monday the resignation of the president of the Local Health Unit (ULS) of the Algarve, Tiago Martins da Silva, after the deaths of two citizens who resorted to the emergency room without allegedly having been attended by a doctor.

From the perspective of Isabel Mendes Lopes, this type of situation results from “a weak investment and lack of professionals” in the National Health Service (SNS), considering that this should be “an absolute priority of this Government”.

Asked whether the ruler should resign or be dismissed, the spokesperson of the Free noticed that “the minister’s situation was already very fragile”: “In fact, it is one of the ministers with less popularity in this government, much for their action and lack of response and lack of responsibility that they have had throughout their entire mandate,” he said.

Accompanied by also spokesperson Jorge Pinto and by Mrs Patrícia Gonçalves, Isabel Mendes Lopes also expressed condolences to the families of the people who died after using this emergency service.

Also BE, at a press conference with the national coordinator, José Manuel Pureza, and the single deputy, Fabian Figueiredo, criticized the minister’s maintenance in office, considering it “incomprehensible”.

José Manuel Pureza considered that the Prime Minister should have “the courage and the frontality” to dismiss the person responsible and criticized the Government for “shooting the responsibilities for intermediate staff”.

“ The minimum decency is Ana Paula Martins resign once and for all ", considered Fabian Figueiredo.

The deputy said that the party has already advanced with an urgent request to listen to the Minister of Health in parliament – like the PS – as well as the outgoing president of the Management Board of the Algarve Local Health Unit, Tiago Botelho, the former director of the Emergency Department, Emergency and Intensive Care, Daniel Nunez, and the former director of the Emergency Service of the Hospital of Portimão, João Coucelo.

Fabian Figueiredo also pointed out that “Ana Paula Martins recognized that she knew the seriousness of the situation of the Hospital de Portimão since July”.

These are the deaths, after several hours of waiting, of two users who appealed in October and November to the emergency room of Portimão Hospital without allegedly having been attended by a doctor.

In an interview with CMTV, on Monday, the minister also referred to the case of a child, who died at the Hospital de Faro, after being transferred from the Hospital de Portimão, advancing that she suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest “at home still”.

“ The child had already been in cardiac arrest for several minutes,” said Ana Paula Martins, referring that the transfer to Faro, where there is a pediatric intensive care unit, was a clinical decision.

Today, the secretary-general of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, said he had learned that there was a fourth death in the hospital of Portimão, “for lack of care due in the health system”.