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Presidential candidate Ana Gomes believes that the Government should move towards civil requisition by the private sector and public-private alliances (PPP) in health if an emergency situation occurs with covid-19.
In an interview with the Lusa agency, which will be released on Saturday, the former Socialist MEP also said that she agreed with the “shaking” advocated by Prime Minister António Costa and that she should consider all measures in case of you see an exponential increase in the pandemic, including a return to lockdown.
“If the country reaches a situation of tremendous demand by the National Health Service, the Government should consider requesting the means that today are destined for the private sector and PPPs, which cannot be left out of the national effort and the emergency national, for the treatment of covid-19 cases, or to treat non-covid-19 cases that are lagging behind due to the health situation. It is a priority for the State ”, emphasized Ana Gomes.
In the interview, Ana Gomes also expressed doubts about the specific objectives contained in a recent letter signed by the presidents of the Order of Doctors, in which the Government recommends a more intense alliance with the private health sector.
“I know two bastonários [da Ordem dos Médicos] It means diverting resources from the State to private ones, for nothing, because what is happening today is enough. I’m not talking about nationalization, but about a civil requisition of the private sector to provide the basic care that is necessary in the face of the national emergency of a situation of exponential increase in cases that is being placed in the country, ”he replied.
The former socialist leader warned that she does not have the data that the Government has on the evolution of the covid-19 pandemic in Portugal.
“But I am afraid that, as a result of what the Minister of Health herself [Marta Temido] admits that the situation is very serious. I hear from various hospital officials saying that it is necessary to open field hospitals to increase the capacity of intensive care. Therefore, I admit that it is necessary to request the attention that exists today in the field of individuals in Portugal ”, he insisted.
Asked about the possibility of a new mandatory confinement being enacted, or about the possibility of Portugal following France to enact a 12-hour curfew, Ana Gomes quoted the prime minister, when she argued that the country needed “a tremor ”in terms of protection measures against covid-19.
“We are facing an alarming increase in the number of cases, which is also registered in other European countries. We know that a pandemic knows no borders. In view of this, I understand that the Prime Minister should consider all measures, possibly even a re-confinement, ”he stated.
Ana Gomes later observed that António Costa is trying to avoid a new mandatory confinement, “because he knows the tremendous economic, social and even human impact on the level of mental health that this implies for many Portuguese.”
“The ideal would be to avoid this, but then it is important to act, which is what I think this state of calamity that has just been decreed says,” he said.
In the current situation of health crisis, the presidential candidate also considered urgent the adoption of “social support measures for the most vulnerable sectors, most exposed to the risks of covid-19.”
“I am referring to communities that live in situations of poverty and unhealthy conditions, situations that increase the risks of exposure to covid-19. Also on Wednesday I visited a neighborhood on the other side of the Tagus River, in Almada, in front of the Belém Palace, which has obviously been a problem for decades, with a community of about three thousand people living in a situation of total indignity. I doubt that there is any means on the part of the municipality to solve the problem, ”he said.
At this point, Ana Gomes stressed that the situation she observed in that Almada neighborhood “is one of those cases in which a social housing policy is required that quickly solves the problem and does not allow the conditions of indignity to worsen, to worsen” . .
“These conditions are themselves potentiating for a covid-19 fuse,” he added.
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