"We do not invest in prevention, unfortunately this Government's objectives are not aimed at prevention, but rather at curative medicine and, when this happens, many seriously ill patients, patients who should be treated at the level of primary care, come very seriously to our [tertiary] hospitals", said the president of the union, Adriano Manuel, this Thursday.
Speaking to Lusa, the doctor expressed concern about the state of health in the country, "which is not good", especially due to the daily flooding in hospital institutions, with malaria, typhoid fever, dengue fever, urinary infections and diarrheal diseases dominating the statistics.
According to the president of the Angolan Doctors' Union, primary hospitals register between 200 and 300 patients daily in emergencies and at tertiary level between 500 and 1000 patients in the emergency department alone.
"When this happens it is because the state of health is not good, we have not invested in prevention, we have not invested in the primary health system", he insisted, also pointing out shortages in medicine.
"We have recently found a shortage of medicines, those related to chronic diseases", he highlighted.
Since the beginning of his term, the President, João Lourenço, has opened several provincial, municipal, regional and other specialty hospital units, with several hospital infrastructures being built.
The head of state inaugurated the Huambo Hemodialysis Center in January, in February he visited the Hospital dos Cajueiros and the works of the Future Institute of Forensic Medicine, in Luanda, and also inaugurated, on April 4, the first phase of the Main Military Hospital.
The Hospital Geral do Zango should open on Friday, in the municipality of Viana, province of Luanda.
For Adriano Manuel, the inauguration of the aforementioned hospital unit does not respond to the great concerns of the residents of Viana, defending the need to enhance existing hospitals to respond to population demand.
"The ideal would be to boost these existing hospitals with human resources, with diagnostic means and invest in medical posts, doing what we call proximity health, which is primary health. So I don't think it will work", he stressed.
The 2024 General State Budget sets expenses and estimates global revenues of 24.7 billion kwanzas, with 5.5 percent of total expenditure, which comprises 1.3 billion kwanzas dedicated to the health sector.
