The Minister of Health said this Thursday that it will take “half a dozen weeks” to correct the difficulties in accessing the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy, stressing that audits are not necessary, as the Left Block requests, but a practical intervention.
“The solution I intend to implement does not go through the creation of working groups, reports, audits, things that delay the resolution of the problem that, from my point of view, has to be resolved expeditiously. each of these sites takes measures so that the faults are corrected. I do not see that it is necessary to make a great reflection or a great study on this matter. It is something of the forum of practical intervention”, said Manuel Pizarro.
BE announced this Thursday that it will propose an audit of units of the National Health System (SNS) to survey the application of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (IVG) law, claiming that it is not being complied with.
To journalists, the holder of the Health portfolio, who was speaking at the end of the presentation ceremony of the new identity of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Santo António, in Porto, said that it was necessary to correct the identified constraints, whether they are related to available human resources or with “appreciation” given by hospital administrations to this matter.
Noting that, in general, access to the IGV is “well assured” by the SNS, the government official admitted, in some cases, the use of private services, stressing that the essential thing is that access to the IGV is guaranteed to all women who wish to do so. .
“My view on the deadline for solving this problem is a few weeks, we are not going to spend a lot of time in this debate. It is a correction that will be made quickly and I admit that, among several solutions, that in some cases, this may involve collaboration with the private sector”, he declared, adding that this is already a normal practice in the SNS.
Questioned by journalists, Manuel Pizarro also said he saw as positive the decision of the Hospital de Santa Maria, in Lisbon, to pay for the termination of the pregnancy of a woman who was forced to go to the private and pay out of her pocket for the procedure after that health unit indicated that he was only available to carry out the IGV after the legal deadline.
In a statement sent to Diário de Notícias (DN), Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte said it regretted the case, assuring that it “will deserve a detailed internal analysis so that similar situations do not happen again, being available to cover all the costs of the intervention”.
“I have already clearly stated what our purpose is: the National Health Service has a legal obligation, more than that a moral obligation, to guarantee access to voluntary termination of pregnancy within the conditions of the law to all women who so desire”, declared.
On Monday, in Porto, the Minister of Health had already admitted the existence of “specific cases” of difficulties in accessing the IGV, committing himself to “corrective measures” shortly.
At the weekend, the DN reported that “public hospitals violate the abortion law”, following an investigation in which it reports several cases in which the law was not complied with.