Minister defends resumption of PPPs in “many health units”

The Minister of Health defended the return of several hospitals to the public-private partnership (PPP) model, such as Beatriz Ângelo, claiming that this is justified by management issues and not ideology.

“I argue that in many of our health units we should resume the PPP model,” said Ana Paula Martins, on the “Política com Assinatura” podcast on Antena 1 with journalist Natália Carvalho.

According to the minister, if a certain type of health unit is given a concession and management model with standards that are used in the private sector, “better results for people” can be achieved.

“It’s a question of management, it has nothing to do with ideology”, assured Ana Paula Martins, pointing out the example of the Beatriz Ângelo Hospital, in Loures, as one of the units that could move to PPP, but without saying which other hospitals could join the public-private model.

In this interview, the minister also reiterated that she supports a complementary model of healthcare provision, claiming that, when the capacity of the National Health Service (SNS) is exhausted, she will not “leave people waiting as long as they accept being treated privately or in social settings”.

When asked about the changes in the administrations of the Local Health Units (ULS), Ana Paula Martins stressed that she has “total and absolute freedom” to choose the people she believes are the most suitable for the role and questioned the “morality” of the PS in criticizing the recent replacements.

“All of these administrations that are currently in charge of the ULS were chosen after the fall of the Government by the previous executive director, Professor Fernando Araújo”, said the minister, questioning the “need to suddenly change so many people, more than 230 leaders”, at a time when legislative elections were to be held.

“The decision can only be attributed to me and does not take into account the fact that people belong to the PSD or not”, the minister also stated.

Ana Paula Martins also announced that she intends to reduce the SNS's dependence on doctors providing services, acknowledging, however, that without these workers many emergency rooms in the country would currently be closed.

According to him, the Government intends to significantly reduce the use of temporary doctors by hospitals, giving them the possibility of joining the NHS.

If they do not accept this solution, these doctors will only be able to provide services in the NHS “under very specific conditions” that are still being defined, stated Ana Paula Martins, adding that around 200 thousand people have had a family doctor since the current Government took office.

The Minister of Health also considered that, in relation to emergency care, the winter “did not have bad results”, despite acknowledging that “not everything went well” in terms of waiting times, but “they are always in the same hospitals”.

“It is true that, with Gandra D´Almeida [executive director of the SNS who resigned], we had a much more effective winter in terms of response than we had in the summer”, stated Ana Paula Martins.