The Regional Secretary for Health revealed today in Ponta Delgada that he intends "to save 20 million Euros this year" in the island health units and the hospitals of the Autonomous Region of the Azores.

Luís Cabral spoke at the beginning of a hearing with the Commission on Social Affairs of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. The government official said he intends to achieve a rationalisation of 9.7 million Euros in the island health units across the archipelago and save the remaining 10 million Euros in Azorean hospitals.

The Regional Secretary noted that the budget for 2013 provides an allocation of 270 million Euros for Health with an additional reinforcement of over 30 million Euros for the Regional Health System.

With regard to the proposal for regional legislative decree presented by the Government that forbids in the Azores the sale of 167 psychoactive substances considered dangerous, Luís Cabral stated that it consists in the adaptation of existing legislation in Mainland Portugal and Madeira to the Region with the aim of preventing the health consequences resulting from the use of these substances.

"This is a clear sign that the Regional Government of the Azores is aware of this problem and wants to prevent the sales of these substances not for their marketing, but because of their side effects," stressed the government official.

Luís Cabral also explained that the proposal is intended to introduce new aspects regarding the contents of products in accordance to the provision of the European plan. In this context, the government official stressed the importance of "defining the list of products that cannot be sold and are illegal."

Another aspect to take into consideration, stressed the Regional Secretary, concerns the continuous updating of the aforementioned list, upon order issued by the Regional Secretariat for Health, with the purpose of preventing the marketing of new products that will be analysed by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.

In this context, health units will play an important role as they will be in charge of reporting to supervisory bodies the new substances that might emerge, thus contributing to the updating of the list of forbidden substances.
 
Furthermore, Luís Cabral restated that the Imaging exams requested in the private sector will no longer be performed at Divino Espírito Santo Hospital except in the cases whose the requests are already on the waiting list. This decision will allow the Regional Health Service to address the needs of the public system.

The only exception, assured the Regional Secretary for Health, goes to MRIs, which will continue to be performed at the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital since there is no other equipment available on the island of São Miguel.