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The plan presented by the Government provides for a direct service channel for pregnant women and financial incentives to increase births.
With the ongoing problems in the NHS, emergency rooms constrained, long waiting lists and 1,7 million people without a GP (family doctor in Portugal), the cabinet approved an emergency healthcare plan, yesterday, and was presented by PM Montenegro and the Health minister, Ana Paula Martins. The Prime Minister said that the plan will give an immediate response, but will not solve all the problems as many are structural and need time to be resolved. The plan was design by a group of specialists and has 54 main policies. The main policies are:
- Open vacancies for 900 new GPs;
- Scrap of wanting lists for cancer patients with telephone vouchers and patients will be operated in either a public or private hospital;
- Creation of clinical care centers in order to lower preassure on emergency rooms, some run by the private sector;
- Requalification of emergency rooms in public hospitals;
- Creation of a SOS Pregnancy line to follow pregnant women;
- Hiring of 100 new psychologists;
- Creation of a mental health plan for the army and police forces;
Reactions were mixed: Doctors associations say they are "happy" with the plan, while leftwing opposition parties, PS, PCP, BE, accuse the government of "privatizing" the NHS and of just showing a power-point. IL and CHEGA say that the plan doesn't go far enough.