The Socialist Party submitted a request to the Regional Government in the Regional Legislative Assembly to know the updated numbers of the health waiting lists in Madeira.
In a press conference, this Sunday morning, in Funchal, Sérgio Gonçalves revealed that the application was filed on February 16th and is still within the response deadline, being necessary to understand whether, in relation to the substantial investment that has been announced in the health area, there has also been a significant reduction in waiting lists and to understand whether the money that has been invested has, in fact, produced results.
“We cannot have 40,000 Madeirans waiting for a consultation or more than 20,000 Madeirans waiting for surgery”, said the president of the PS-M, recalling that health is the main concern of Madeirans, as recently confirmed by a opinion study.
For Sérgio Gonçalves, “the main concern is the great difficulty that Madeirans have in accessing healthcare in a public system that cannot respond and the accumulation of waiting lists is an example of this, which creates greater difficulties in a Region that has a very low income”.
A quarter of the population lives on 551 euros
On the sidelines of this conference, Sérgio Gonçalves was challenged to respond to Miguel Albuquerque’s statements, who denied, yesterday, that there are Madeirans living on 551 euros a month.
The leader of the socialists recalls that “Albuquerque has often distrusted official data to divert attention from the problems that Madeirans feel”, stressing that the PS believes in official data, both from INE and DREM, a service supervised by the President of the Regional Government himself.