Sílvia Lutucuta, who was speaking to Angolan Public Television as part of the date marking the International Kidney Day, said the country has diagnostic capacity and specialists, mostly trained abroad, mainly in Portugal, to follow up on the treatment of patients.
According to Silvia Lutucuta, in 2018 competent multidisciplinary teams made the evaluation of patients who were in Portugal and concluded that many of them could already return to the country.
"We have situations of various kinds, of people who had been discharged for quite some time and still remained in Portugal, we also had situations of people who had practically lived in Portugal for more than 30 years," said Sílvia Lutucuta, mentioning that "the entire evaluation was done together with their attending physicians, they were discharged and were able to return to the country."
The Health Minister underlined that the conditions for the people's return have been created, namely the payment of allowances, airline tickets, medicines, and also the availability of an assistant doctor for the trip.
"When it comes to kidney failure, we have more than enough conditions in the country to ensure the hemodialysis treatment," said the minister, stressing that the competence of the national professionals cannot be questioned.
"They are quite competent and have the conditions here to accompany hemodialysis patients, we have hemodialysis centers that are second to no institution anywhere in the world," she said.
In what concerns transplant patients, Sílvia Lutucuta said that after the immediate transplant and after the whole situation is under control, "there is no reason for a transplant patient to also be in Portugal".
The minister said that the country had a large debt with Portugal on behalf of these patients, amounting to seven million euros, most of which has been paid, missing at this time about 2.8 million euros.
According to the governor, a very small number of patients remained in Portugal, whose pathologies still justify the continuity of treatment until April and others until June.
"Those patients who were already in the transplant process also stayed, because they are still in a very recent phase and some in the immediate post-operative period", informed the minister, stressing that the health sector in Portugal will have to be closed, to be refounded "and start with a joint process, with very different procedures that benefit everyone", said the minister.
At the end of January this year, the Executive announced the closure of the health boards in Portugal, starting in February, after an audit that identified several abuses in the use of this mechanism.
About this Government decision, about 200 patients who received support from the State for their stay and treatment manifested against it, fearing lack of conditions in the country for their medical assistance.
The Association of Support to Angolan Patients in Portugal (ADAP) even sent a letter to the President, João Lourenço, in which they drew attention to the particular situation of some patients who need a follow-up that they cannot find in the country.
The document requested "a moratorium or review of the decision taken, to avoid unpleasant situations and unpredictable consequences", as well as to make an "analysis and evaluation case by case, according to the pathology of patients who are able to return to the country, with guarantees of continued medical care and medication.
Patients and their companions have held demonstrations in front of the Angolan embassy in Portugal and posted videos on social networks, contesting the authorities' decision to return them to Angola.
