The former executive director of the National Health Service (SNS), Fernando Araújo, stated on Wednesday that the SNS Executive Board "must be above political or partisan issues" and must implement "public policies determined by the Government, which it must earn the trust of".

"The SNS Executive Board is a technical body, a public statute of the State, which must be above political issues or partisan agendas, and which implements public policies determined by the Government, which it must earn the trust of", he began by saying at a hearing in Parliament to explain the reasons for his resignation in April.

Fernando Araújo highlighted that on Tuesday he submitted the activity report of the National Health Service Executive Board and, "despite being given 60 days to do so", the outgoing board managed to "carry out the task in half the time" in order to "allow the supervisory authority to implement the policies and measures necessary for the SNS with the required speed".

"The report will be released because we believe that it is not only a responsibility, but a duty, to present the results of the work carried out so that it can be scrutinised", he added.

The document aimed to identify the set of strategic interventions that were carried out with "a focus on users, especially the most vulnerable, building a more effective and inclusive SNS, but not exhausting or introducing all the activities carried out".

In this sense, the DE-SNS divided the testimony into 12 chapters: "There are more than 600 pages, to which are added a set of around 350 annexes with more than 8,000 pages, but it is certainly not the quantity that is relevant".

"It was a serious attempt to list in a transparent way the more than 200 initiatives we worked on, the problems and solutions studied, which can naturally be the subject of distinct political decisions, but allowing a solid basis for the study of the processes", he stated.

The doctor also expressed his gratitude to the professionals for "the care and commitment they have always shown", particularly the members of his team.

In the initial speech, the PS deputy João Paulo Correia regretted that the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, was not present when Fernando Araújo submitted the report to the Ministry of Health, considering it to be "a lack of respect".

The deputy recalled that the choice of Fernando Araújo and his team to lead the DE-SNS received "enormous applause from the health sector and from practically all sectors of public opinion and even from the President of the Republic".

"He set out on a very difficult, demanding and complex mission, the mission of modernising the management of the SNS and also of carrying out the largest organisational reform in these 45 years, since the creation of the National Health Service", he said, criticising the fact that the Minister of Health had forced, "from the outset", the resignation of Fernando Araújo and his team.

For João Paulo Correia, this resignation is part of "a strategy of purges that the AD government has been carrying out in the public administration".

"At the same time, it reveals an intention, the interruption of this reform that is being implemented in the SNS, which will naturally bring harm to healthcare, to users and to the Portuguese", he stressed.

At the hearing, Fernando Araújo recalled the measures taken, such as self-declaration of illness, temporary incapacity certificates in private, social and emergency services, seasonal vaccination in community pharmacies, "always in a coordinated manner with the other SNS institutions, in a logic of partnership and alignment of functions and competences, without conflicts, overlaps or difficulties".

It should be noted that the Ministry of Health also announced on Wednesday that Lieutenant-Colonel António Granda d'Almeida was chosen to be the new executive director of the SNS.

The appointment took place after the Government received, on Tuesday, "the activity report of the Executive Board of the National Health Service (DE – SNS) which will now be analysed by the Ministry of Health". 

The composition of the remaining team of the Executive Board of the SNS (DE-SNS) will be announced "soon" and the names "will be submitted to the Recruitment and Selection Commission for Public Administration (CReSAP)".

It should be noted that the executive board began its activity on 1 January 2023, following the new Statute of the National Health Service (SNS) proposed by then Minister Marta Temido, with the aim of coordinating the healthcare response of all SNS units and modernising its management.

[News updated at 11:11]

Read Also: António Gandra d'Almeida chosen as executive director of the SNS (Portuguese version)