PS commits to reducing waiting lists in Healthcare | Funchal News | Madeira News – Information for everyone for everyone!

The PS came today to promise to reduce waiting lists in Health if it becomes Government in the Region. Words from the president of the PS-M and candidate for the presidency of the Regional Government, Paulo Cafôfo, when visiting the construction works of the Central and University Hospital of Madeira.

The infrastructure will only be possible thanks to 50% co-financing from the Government of the Republic of PS, which, it hopes, can also contribute to a “turning the page in Health in the Region”.

On the occasion, the socialist leader recalled the promise made by Miguel Albuquerque in 2015 to end healthcare waiting lists, but found that, contrary to what was promised, they had increased.

“He had the ability to duplicate medical procedures on the waiting list”, joked Paulo Cafôfo, adding that if Albuquerque was not able to solve the problem in eight years, he will not be able to do so now.

The PS-M president said that, according to data from 2023, waiting lists for appointments increased by 47%, with 45 thousand people waiting for an appointment.

Furthermore, there are more than 18 thousand people on the waiting list for surgery.

“The health of Madeirans and Porto Santos cannot be on a waiting list. Health cannot wait”, he warned, considering it neither right nor fair that “people who do not have financial resources do not have access to healthcare and only those who have money can resort to private healthcare”.

“With us, health will be for everyone, and not just for the rich or those who can resort to clinics or private hospitals”, he guaranteed.

Cafôfo recognizes that the waiting lists will never end, but assures that, with a PS Government, they will be reduced, so that what we see now does not continue to happen.

While on the continent the average waiting time for surgery is three months, in Madeira it is 36 months, he said.

Therefore, he assured that the PS has a clear strategy to solve the problem, defining maximum guaranteed response times, exhausting the capacity of the Regional Health Service (in terms of spaces, human resources and equipment) and, when these deadlines are not met , contract with private companies, so that this medical care is safeguarded and “no one is left on a waiting list or does not wait too long, worsening their health and further burdening, with other pathologies that are then associated, the Regional Health Service itself ”.