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And the fourth decree of the state of emergency signed by him, the President of the Republic managed to get the government to accept that the civil requisition of private hospitals can only occur by “agreement” and with “just compensation.”
This is one of the main novelties of the decree that the President of the Republic agreed with the government and that was approved on Friday in the Assembly of the Republic (with votes in favor of the PS, PSD, CDS and unregistered deputy Cristina Rodrigues, abstention BE, PAN and Chega and votes against by PCP, PEV, IL and Joacine Katar Moreira).
In his first three decrees that institute the state of emergency – revealed on March 18, April 1 and April 16 – Marcelo never included in the determinations on the request of private media to help the State object of an agreement and / or ” fair compensation”. “.
But in the last one – unveiled on Thursday – this caveat already appears: “The resources, means and facilities for the provision of comprehensive health care in the private, social and cooperative sectors can be used by the competent public authorities, preferably by agreement. fair compensation, depending on what is necessary to ensure the treatment of patients with covid-19 or the maintenance of healthcare activity in relation to other pathologies ”.
Pull right for the private
The exception that adapts the intervention of the private health sector to its own pretensions comes at a time when an apparent near exhaustion of the capacity of the SNS raises the voices that say that the State must use all the “installed capacity” to fight the pandemic – even the one that is not state-owned.
This week it was learned that the Minister of Health signed an order authorizing the SNS units to suspend non-urgent treatments in case it is necessary to reinforce the means for the treatment of those infected with covid-19. All records were broken, in new infected and in deaths, in the balance that the DGS made yesterday on the evolution of the pandemic in the last 24 hours: another 5550 infections and another 52 deaths. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Portugal has registered 2,793 deaths and 166,900 cases of infection, with 70,354 active today.
No answer “outside the NHS”
Following the shipment, PSD and CDS, through their respective leaders, were quick to say that the government must seek help from the private sector to continue fighting the pandemic. Rui Rio and Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos accused the Minister of Health of having an ideological bias against the private health sector.
On Thursday, in Parliament, during a debate on the OE 2020 specialty, Marta Temido said that the response to the covid-19 pandemic is only being supported by the NHS, given the lack of solutions provided by the private and social sectors. “We have not had responses to the covid disease outside the NHS. We have not had them, neither for infrastructure reasons nor for reasons of difficulty and uncertainty, perfectly understandable and that we will try to negotiate and accommodate,” he said. Adding: “I do not want to involve the NHS, the Portuguese and the aid activity in wars that do not exist. We are here to work and serve the Portuguese, not to serve wars that do not interest anyone.”
Emergency to the end
Yesterday the minister received a strong expression of political confidence from the prime minister, “I would say even reinforced.” “No Minister of Health has so far been subjected to a test as tough as the current one. I believe that the Minister of Health has given the answer that has strengthened people’s trust in the NHS,” said António Costa. Interviewed on Antena 1, he also admitted that, “at the limit”, the state of emergency approved yesterday – and which will come into effect at 00:00 next Monday – “may last until the end of the pandemic.” “But that,” he added, “does not mean that the measures, in particular, last permanently. We can have measures that last for a weekend, as happened last week, and then they will disappear.” This Saturday the Council of Ministers will meet to regulate new measures to combat the pandemic.
Last night the President of the Republic assured, in a message to the country, that the new state of emergency will be “very limited and preventive.” November, he said, will be “a test” to avoid “an aggravated December” and to impose “more drastic measures.”
