Why was the president of Uls Aveiro and not Tâmega removed?

O The Ministry of Health today justified the absence of the president of the Local Health Unit of Tâmega and Sousa, accused of corruption, claiming that the crimes he is accused of will have occurred in the performance of other functions.

In response to questions from Lusa about the alleged duality of criteria in this case and in Aveiro, in which the president of ULS was removed following suspicions of corruption crimes, the Ministry of Health says that the minister “takes decisions in the areas for which she is mandated”.

Underlining that it is the responsibility of the responsible of the Health folder “to protect the users of the various hospital units”, the guardianship says that decisions on judicial issues “feeling in the courts” and recalls that “everyone enjoys the right to presumption of innocence”.

“ Whenever the functioning of any ULS is at risk it is the health minister’s obligation to reduce this risk, if it is not possible to restore the complete normality of the situation”, explains the answer of the Ministry of Health.

Whereas these are different situations, it explains that, in the case of the ULS of Aveiro, “there is a risk of damaging the organization and operation of that ULS”, what “it does not happen in the ULS of Tâmega and Sousa”, whose president is accused in a case related to “other functions than the current ones”.

The president of the ULS of the Aveiro Region, Ricardo Matos, was arrested on Monday, together with an entrepreneur and an engineer, friends of the president of ULS Aveiro and to whom he will have delivered works, in exchange for economic advantages, namely in the construction of a house on the beach of Barra, in Ílhavo.

In question will still be illegalities detected in Ricardo Matos's process of choice for the chairmanship of the Board of Directors of ULS Aveiro, a position he took in May, succeeding Margarida France.

With regard to the president of the Board of Directors of the ULS of the Algarve, away after several deaths in the emergency room of the hospital of Portimão, the Ministry of Health recalls that he “is not the subject of any judicial charge”.

“IGAS [General Inspection of Health Activities] and IGF [General Inspection of Finances] will, however, carry out inspective processes,” adds Health Protection, explaining that the resignation is based on the fact that “the institution’s ability to ensure an adequate and timely response to users’ needs may be at stake.”.

In this case, in a clarification sent to Lusa after being questioned why he had renewed in September the president of ULS Algarve, after having received reports of problems in the urgency of that health unit, the minister said she received personal assurances from the person responsible that measures would be taken to improve the urgency of Portimão.

“ In these circumstances, and because the minister cannot decide every time she receives a complaint, a complaint or even a proposal, nor the measures are implemented overnight, she spoke again, in September with the PCA of the Algarve ULS which ensured that everything was being improved. It was in this assumption that it was renewed”, justified the Ministry.