"I was surprised, especially because we imagined, as I think is natural, that it was already programmed (the summer plan), since we are really on the brink of summer. In fact, I was expecting that we were already working on the winter plan", said the minister when commenting on the information that the resigning executive director of the NHS had refused to elaborate this plan.

The newspaper Público reported today that the Minister of Health asked Fernando Araújo for a summer plan for the NHS, but the now resigning executive director refused.

According to the newspaper, Fernando Araújo was surprised by the request because he was not aware of the plans of the guardianship, but the Government expected that the plan was advanced and assures that it will guarantee that the summer "runs normally".

In Porto, on the sidelines of a visit to the operating block of the Hospital de Santo António, where she learned about a project that combines robotic surgery and artificial intelligence, Ana Paula Martins said that it will be the 'task force' that "in a dispatch, is being appointed".

"We have a 'task force' that, in a dispatch, is being appointed and that has been working on the Emergency and Urgency Plan since we took office, which will be presented shortly by the Government. Naturally, this so-called Seasonal Plan will also be carried out with this same group of leaders, who have people from various professions and, above all, have people from various parts of the country", she said.

Confronted by journalists with questions about which plan, specifically, had been requested from the Executive Directorate of the NHS (DE-SNS), Ana Paula Martins did not fully clarify the competences of each of the structures linked to the NHS and to the health area, but said that she had "expectation" that the DE-SNS would guarantee the articulation of this entire network.

"The Seasonal Public Health Plans are from the DGS [General Directorate of Health], because of heat waves and cold waves, and are always made by the DGS and will continue to be (...). But summarising a long decree-law [of the statutes of the DE-SNS] with many competences and numerous attributions, it is very clear that the articulation of the mesh, of the network of the LHU [Local Health Units] that integrate the hospital centres and the so-called health centres, is the competence of the executive director and his team to guarantee the articulation of this entire network", said the minister.

And she added: "If we have situations of greater pressure at certain times of the year, in certain regions of the country and in certain specialities, as we know obstetrics, that is what the DE-SNS does, has done, and hence this expectation".

Before heading to the Northern Maternal-Infant Centre (CMIN), a structure that is also part of the LHU Santo António, Ana Paula Martins was also asked about who will be Fernando Araújo's successor in the DE-SNS, but she did not reply.

Regarding the visit to the CMIN, which was not formally programmed, the minister said that it would serve to meet with "leaders in the North and understand (...) and understand the response to give to the citizens".

Previously, in information given to the journalists on the sidelines, it was mentioned that the meeting would bring together those responsible for the maternal-infant area in the North in order to prepare the summer plan.

In Santo António, throughout the visit, Ana Paula Martins was accompanied by the chairman of the board of directors of the LHU Santo António, Paulo Barbosa, by the director of the surgery department of this hospital, Eurico Castro Alves, who is also president of the Northern Regional Section of the Order of Physicians, by the clinical director, António Barros and by the director of the CMIN, Caldas Afonso.

A visit by Ana Paula Martins to the obstetrics emergency department of the Hospital de São João, also in Porto, is planned for Sunday.

[News updated at 14:25]

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