Socialists resuscitate calls for health minister to step down; Party says state health service “far worse today” than it was two years ago At yet another crunch point in the country s health panorama, PS Socialists have returned to the many calls this far for health minister Ana Paula Martins to step down. To be fair, some media outlets have said Ms Martins has wanted to step down for some time, but is staying in place because the prime minister is not ready to let her go. Whatever the truth, the reality, say Socialists, is that the country s state health service is in a far worse condition than it was two years ago when the AD government took office. Speaking for the PS s national secretariat, Maria Antónia Almeida Santos said today that it is “evident” that Ana Paula Martins has had an “erratic” tenure, and no longer has the conditions to continue. “The prime minister has to act. It is two years that we have been experiencing this, so enough of all the excuses: something needs to be done; everything is getting worse. If (nothing is done) things will become dramatic,” warned Almeida Santos. “The numbers don t lie,” she added. “And to say the contrary is not acceptable. It is even an insult to the intelligence of the Portuguese.” This was another moment when the “promises” made by the prime minister and his government were highlighted as having been devoid of meaning. Considering recent data emerging from ERS (the health service regulating entity), Almeida Santos stressed: “Everything has failed. Unfortunately we have a prime minister who has ignored, minimised structural problems within the health service”, she added, describing the crushing lack of health professionals, the aging population, the far higher demand for state healthcare that followed the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost as if on cue , and on the coatails of a new 24-hour strike by nurses , came yet another story of a death awaiting emergency response: this time, it was of a 48-year-old man in Moita do Lobo, Santarém, who died waiting 50 minutes for the arrival of an ambulance after going into convulsions. According to reports, the classification of the emergency call made by the man s panicked father “was not given maximum priority”, and firefighters who did respond were given the incorrect address. By the time the urgency of the call had been established, the victim had entered cardiorespiratory arrest , and firefighters, when they finally reached him, did not have a defibrillator to try resuscitation. Correio da Manhã has said its reporters have questioned INEM (medical emergency institute) about this incident, but did not receive an immediate reply. Source: SIC Notícias/ Correio da Manhã