It is confirmed that the public health maintains its illness.
The Health Ministry’s program for the reduction of the waiting-lists at the surgery and the hospitals consulting-rooms is extremely slow, in several medical specialities.
There are Hospital Emergencies on the edge of breaking off with Health professionals becoming saturated.
Medical negligence is becoming apparent…
The lack of Doctors is continuous (in some specialities it becomes anxious), health attendants, technicians…and there are unoccupied Doctors.
There are Health Centres which are functioning badly.
The booking of consultations of diagnostics does not correspond, so many times, with the urgency needed by the health situation of the ill person.
The rules at the SNS (National Health System) in Portugal, are: disorder, lack of discipline, bureaucracy, studies and management experiences (as we are used to them with the changes of Ministers… and the reformimg plans are going on without any hope. In the meantime, the sick people suffering (and dying) are still waiting…
- Since 1995 we are standing to be listened and for a Reform of the Public Health.
- On 1996 we delivered 19.104 signatures to the Purveyor of Justice, in protest against the extreme gravity of the existence of ill persons waiting to be called for surgeries, some of them with more than 10 years of awaiting and suffering and many of them dying.
- At the same time, we also raised a protest against the Health Ministry, through his responsible , for the same reasons, sending the same information to the political organizations, trade-union movements and the Order of Doctors.
- On 1997, the purveyor of Justice, after an inquiry in some hospitals, publicly confirmed the Gravity of the situation.
- On May 1999, in view to have a better audience, we founded a civic association called “MOVIMENTO ORGANIZADO CONTRA AS LISTAS DE ESPERA NA SAÚDE – MOCLES (Organized Movement Against the Waiting –lists for healths) counting 42 founders and members of great relevance in the portuguese society. And something got better, but still far away from the promises and political actions publicly announced, especially during the elections campaigns.
- And since the Reform of the Public Health in Portugal is still to be achieved, we went further and created in 2001 the RALLYING FOR THE PATIENT – MD, which has been concluded in 2002 with a political structure, inedited, with the purpose of trying to join all the intervening people in the national Health System, especially the political Parties, to find, at short delay, solutions for an efficient reformation of health services, without personal or political victories. Will that be an utopia? But will the good Portuguese people not deserve these improvements?