Ana Paula Martins, a minister under fire

Ana Paula Martins, Minister of Health, is the government leader under the greatest pressure, shortly after Luís Montenegro's new government took office. In the middle of the summer season, emergency room closures are repeated, especially obstetrics in the Greater Lisbon area and, in particular, on the Setúbal Peninsula. The cases of two pregnant women who, in recent weeks, knocked on the doors of the NHS and ended up giving birth many kilometers from home, with fatal outcomes for the babies, sounded alarm bells in the government and forced the minister to give public explanations.

In an interview with SIC this Wednesday, Ana Paula Martins sought to minimize the damage, assuring that the government is trying to find solutions to solve the emergency room problems on the Setúbal peninsula, but that "it will take time." Strongly focused on showing empathy for the Portuguese people who have been facing a lack of response from the NHS, the minister announced that starting September 1st, the Garcia de Orta Hospital will have an obstetrics emergency room open 24 hours a day. To achieve this, Ana Paula Martins announced that she has hired an obstetrics team currently working in the private sector.

The creation of regional emergency departments, already announced, is another solution that the minister believes will move forward starting in September, when the government will begin negotiations with unions to ensure doctors' support for this solution, which plans to concentrate emergency departments in various areas of the country. The goal is to ensure access to a hospital emergency department without requiring patients to travel long distances, in some cases even moving to another district.

The lack of INEM helicopters to transport urgent patients due to delays in the public tender to guarantee air transport for emergency medical services, starting July 1st, was another topic Ana Paula Martins had to address in the interview. The minister acknowledged delays in the public tender process, attributing the Ministry's inability to resolve the situation in a timely manner to "excessive government bureaucracy."

For now, the justifications have been given, but the concern about the emergence of new difficulties in health continues to worry the Government.