The executive directorate of the SNS is a “heavy, barely functional structure with excessive powers”

The president of the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) defended today that the executive direction of the National Health Service (DE-SNS) is a “very heavy, poorly functional structure, with an unreasonable budget” and “excessive powers” that the Government will have to decide whether to keep it.

Regarding the resignation of the executive director of DE-SNS, Fernando Araújo, announced today, the president of Fnam, Joana Bordalo e Sá, told Lusa that it will be up to the new Government to decide the governance model of the SNS and whether DE-SNS will remain SNS, but criticizes the structure.

“It is a very heavy structure, which was not very functional, which had an unreasonable budget and with many human resources allocated, which did not translate into the work carried out, and had excessive powers, which emptied entities such as the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS ), the Regional Health Administrations (ARS), some responsibilities of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS)”, said Joana Bordalo e Sá.

The union leader also pointed the finger at the profuse legislative production in the last year, especially the one that “ended up being done in a haphazard way” and resulted in the model of Local Health Units (ULS) — contested by the current Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, and which led her to resign from the board of directors of Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte, currently ULS Santa Maria.

For Joana Bordalo e Sá, DE-SNS “did not help the functioning of the ULS”, stressing that “without human resources on the ground”, namely doctors, it will not be possible to provide services to the population.

The president of FNAM said “regardless of what happens” regarding the future decision on the form of governance of the SNS — whether to extinguish DE-SNS, or to appoint a new management or another option — without this appreciation of doctors’ careers “it will be very difficult for a DE-SNS to be able to do its job”.

“Whoever comes, above all, will have to have adequate management and also manage the financial resources they have, but above all, with regard to the organization of the SNS, this organization also has to be more competent and more appealing for doctors to be in the SNS”, said Joana Bordalo e Sá, who once again highlighted the lack of professionals, which meant that the solutions found by the outgoing management involved closing services, especially in hospital emergencies.

The executive director of the National Health Service announced today that he will submit his resignation, together with his team, to the Minister of Health, claiming that he does not want to be an obstacle to the Government in the policies and measures it deems necessary.

“Respecting the principle of institutional loyalty, I will present to the Minister of Health, together with the team I manage, the request to resign from the position of executive director of the National Health Service”, said Fernando Araújo in a statement.

According to him, this “difficult decision” will allow the new guardianship to “implement the policies and measures it deems necessary, with the required speed, preventing the current DE-SNS from being considered an obstacle to its implementation”.