Friday 21 May 2010

335. State Budget funds sufficient to maintain and improve health care says minister

The Health Minister, Ana Jorge, held that the State Budget for 2009 is enough to maintain and improve health care to the population. Speaking on the sidelines of the signing of a protocol with the Boards of Vila do Conde and Povoa de Varzim to build a new hospital, Ana Jorge said that we have a budget that is possible at this time and therefore have an obligation to manage it well.
According to Minister of Health, to manage well does not mean cutting means thinking about the resources and the needs that exist there. It is essential to define priorities, to involve practitioners and also the population that needs to be able to appeal to health services in a rational and responsible, said Ana Jorge.
The purpose of the proposed State Budget for 2009 the Minister stressed that it was done with reality and thinking about what you can do since it is well managed. To her, the priorities are set, highlighting the continuity of the reforms of health care and primary care facilities and hospitals, and health programs that are part of the national plan and that has to be monitored.
With regard to waiting lists for surgery and oral health, Ana Jorge said let's focus in some areas to improve aspects complicated.
The minister who holds the portfolio of Health also announced that it will release a program on reducing waiting lists for surgery on ambulatory surgery. This new model, with a set of attitudes and practices that will post Monday to shorten waiting lists because there are many surgeries that can be done with just one day after admission, under conditions of full safety for the patient, concluded Ana Jorge.
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The Minister acknowledges that there are funds which constitute the main obstacle to productivity in public health and therefore the provision of primary health care to populations. In fact, there is a lack of organization in the way of administering the various departments of public health, how often outdated and that instead of improving the healthcare of the population, have the perverse effect of acting in the opposite direction.
Technological advances can relieve many features of National Health Service wasted on bureaucracy to be implanted directly in the provision of health care.
For example, why the Ministry of Health does not transfer the money it spends on oral health for schools or health centers? Power would thus gain immensely in terms of productivity and results in oral health, while not, is the despair of those who have refused treatment and see oral health, especially the layers of the poorest people, children and elderly who they are denied any possibility of effective treatment in time.
Words for what? Is required is action and enough bureaucracy in the bodies of the Ministry of Health.

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