Lisbon, Dec. 11, 2024 (Lusa) - The Portuguese government will approve on Thursday a spending budget of €2.3 million for the purchase of medicines and services for the national health service, the prime minister announced on Wednesday.

This measure on health policy, which will be approved by the Cabinet, was conveyed by Luís Montenegro in the fortnightly parliamentary debate, in response to the latest speech by the leader of the Socialist Party (PS), Pedro Nuno Santos.

The leader of the executive began by saying that just today the minister of health, Ana Paula Martins, said that €975 million would be transferred to the local health units, with a view to resolving payments to suppliers that were in arrears - commitments made by the PS government.

"On Thursday, at the Cabinet meeting, we will authorise spending to the value of €2.3 billion for the purchase of medicines and services for the national health service (SNS)," declared Luís Montenegro.

According to the prime minister, by bringing forward the purchase of both services and medicines, the state will save "something like €247 million, more than 10% of the value of the spending authorisation that will be approved on Thursday".

He then addressed the leader of the PS, telling him that "it's with measures like this, financial recovery, good management, it's with the recovery of waiting lists, starting with oncological surgeries, that we're improving services".

"We want to offer family medicine to the Portuguese and their families who didn't have it when we took office - and that was around 1.7 million Portuguese. We know that the country's structural problems won't be solved overnight, but there's one thing that's a big difference between us and the PS: we're actually going to implement what we're saying," he added.

PMF/AYLS // AYLS

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