Following the closure of Angola's medical board in Portugal, which took place in February, dozens of patients returned to Angola, but most chose to stay in Portugal, claiming that they needed to continue receiving treatments that they claim do not exist in their country.
At the time, the Government stated that, before the closing of this medical board, there were 385 citizens in Portugal, including patients and caregivers. The closing of the board followed an audit that assessed the patients and reportedly detected "several abuses in the use of this mechanism".
In February 27 patients returned, joining the 17 who had already chosen to return, by their own means, because their health situation had been resolved. Forty-seven patients and 20 companions remained, receiving support from the State, with an expected return by the end of the year.
The other around 100 patients who chose not to return were left on their own and without the support of the State, neither for the payment of the room in the pension where they still live, nor for expenses. They continued, however, to receive medical treatment, under the agreement between Angola and Portugal in the area of health.
The president of ADAP, Gabriel Tchimuco, told the Lusa agency that patients who chose to stay in Portugal did so to survive, as they have no clinical response in Angola.
These are, above all, transplant patients or those undergoing hemodialysis, in addition to cancer cases.
Gabriel Tchimuco, who underwent a kidney transplant in Portugal, was one of those who returned to Angola and had to return, as he found no clinical response in terms of exams and medication.
"I wanted to know where I would undergo the treatments, which hospital, but they couldn't give me an answer. I benefited again from a board credential. I came again from a board because I had to breastfeed bullets and go to Luanda because of it," he said.
So far, "only three or four of the patients who went have returned" because the authorities "had to recognize that there are no conditions for kidney transplant recipients in Luanda, not only because of the medication, but also the laboratory and surgical issues", he continued. .
The ADAP president also indicated that, of the patients who returned, one died who had been subjected to a tracheostomy, as well as a child who had received a bone marrow transplant. Another patient died recently in Portugal.
Gabriel Tchimuco regrets above all the indecision of the authorities who should have defined in which clinical circumstances a patient should remain in Lisbon.
"They should do a letter, patients in y situation, must stay in Portugal. I came, with a credential for a month, but there are many things to do, tests to do, I'm not the only patient in the hospital, there's a list" , he stressed.
The concerns are extended to patients who, fearing for their lives if they would return to Angola, due to an alleged lack of medical response to their chronic pathologies, were left on their own in Portugal.
"Life is priceless. Many of us have conditions in Angola, but then we have the problem of hospital conditions. Going to Angola is an early euthanasia," he said.
Some of the patients who were left on their own "have some support from the Portuguese State, they can survive, they can't live, but they can survive".
Help also comes from family members, friends and the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Lisbon (SCML) and the Evangelical Church, which "has helped a lot", especially in terms of food and, in some cases, support for accommodation.
The sharing of rooms by several patients has also been a solution adopted for those who have no more means, but prefer to stay in Portugal.
These concerns were explained in a letter that ADAP recently addressed to the Portuguese foreign minister, to whom the association says it is considering applying for a "application for subsidiary protection of shelter in Portugal or in a State of the European Union".
In the letter, to which Lusa had access, the representatives of the Angolan patients in Portugal accuse the Government of Angola of placing "all the patients without shelter, without food support, transport and other means of vital needs, which are humanly essential".
"Since the right to health is universal, we reiterate here a request for urgent intervention in a framework of human solidarity in the field of health, or at the limit we will be forced to apply for subsidiary protection protection for shelter in Portugal or in a State of the European Union ", continues the letter.
