This Monday, November 3, the Prime Minister criticized the “great communications dispute” that arose in Portugal for saying that it was necessary to optimize resources and better manage financial investment in health.
“Because someone said that it was necessary to optimize resources and better manage the financial investment that was being made to produce better results and to be able, in essence, to provide a better service while spending less `aqui-d´el-rei´ that the country would end up”, said Luís Montenegro during the visit to Sword Health, in Porto, accompanied by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, and the new mayor of Porto, Pedro Duarte.
In recent days, there has been several criticisms, after the executive director of the SNS allegedly gave instructions to hospitals to reduce spending in 2026.
According to news from Público, the order is to reduce spending on medicines, additional production (such as out-of-hours surgeries to alleviate waiting lists), service providers and staff hiring.
The Prime Minister regretted that “such a simple and obvious thing” had been criticized, remembering that in the last 10 years spending on the health system went from eight billion euros to 18 billion, more than double, without there being a correlation between this evolution and the services that are provided.
“Well, what we want is this. What we want in Portugal is more healthcare, more effectiveness and efficiency and, at the same time, also better financial results or savings as they call it”, creased.
According to the chief executive, Portugal must face these problems “without complexes, without barriers, with an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit”.
“This is the Portugal we want, it is not the Portugal of the ‘Old People of Restelo’ who always complain, even when reality later shows that they are wrong, that the objectives and results that were stated were not achieved”, he said.
In his opinion, Portugal needs to have a culture more committed to results.