Regarding the resignation of the DE-SNS executive director, 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 on the SNS governance model and whether DE-SNS will remain, but she criticises the structure.

"It is a very heavy structure, which was not very functional, had an excessive budget and with many allocated human resources, which did not translate into 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), and some powers of the Directorate-General of Health (DGS)", said Joana Bordalo e Sá.

The union leader also pointed out the profuse legislative production in the last year, especially the one that "ended up being done in a haphazard manner" and resulted in the model of the Local Health Units (ULS) -- contested by the current Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, and which led her to submit her resignation from the board of directors of the Lisbon North University Hospital Centre, the current 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 service to the population.

The president of FNAM said that "regardless of what happens" regarding the future decision on the form of governance of the SNS -- whether to extinguish DE-SNS, appoint a new director or another option -- without this valorisation of the doctors' career "it will be very difficult for a DE-SNS 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 organisation of the SNS, this organisation also has to be more competent and more appealing for doctors to be in the SNS", said Joana Bordalo e Sá, who once again stressed the shortage of professionals, which led to the solutions found by the outgoing management having been to close 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 submit to the Minister of Health, together with the team I lead, the request for resignation 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 authority 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".

Also Read: SNS executive director submits resignation to Minister of Health (Portuguese version)