Xavier Barreto declined to comment to Lusa on the appointment of the new SNS executive director, António Gandra d'Almeida, who will replace Fernando Araújo in the position, explaining that he is not in the habit of making judgments about people he does not know. "I will naturally wait to meet the person and hear their vision, plan and strategy, and then I will be able to make that judgment," said the hospital administrator. For the APAH president, it is necessary to know "what the competence profile" of the new executive director is, but also what the Government wants for the SNS Executive Directorate (DE-SNS). "The Government has not yet announced what changes it wants to make to the Executive Directorate. We know that in the case of the previous Executive Directorate, there were, in fact, very broad competences, some of which were not even foreseen at the beginning, such as the appointment of managers. We do not know exactly what is intended to be done now," he said. Xavier Barreto argued that it is necessary to understand whether the supervisory authority wants the Executive Directorate to have "a greater governance role in the National Health Service or whether it will simply be an executor of policies." "It is now important to wait for the definition of the framework in which the new executive director will work, but it is also important to know what the vision of the person and the next executive director is (...) for the SNS, for its development, for its empowerment, for the strengthening of its human resources framework and what strategies it proposes and what new ideas it can bring," he stressed. Asked whether the measures taken by Fernando Araújo should be continued, Xavier Viegas said that "clearly yes, without prejudice to the possibility of some adjustment in some details", because it is necessary to constantly evaluate to understand what is not going so well and to correct it. "This is normal in any change process. Therefore, it is also normal for it to happen in this case, but the main objectives, the main axes of the reform must be maintained," he argued, considering it essential to have some continuity in public policies and in the health sector "even more so." The Ministry of Health announced today that it had chosen the 44-year-old doctor António Gandra d'Almeida to replace Fernando Araújo as executive director of the SNS and added that the lieutenant colonel has extensive experience in medical emergencies. In a statement, the ministry indicates that the new official was director of the northern regional delegation of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM), is commander of the Health Group, carries out hospital and pre-hospital assistance activities and that in the Armed Forces he has accumulated leadership and coordination functions. Read Also: INEM management? Emergency technicians' union calls for "investigation" (Portuguese version)