According to the president of the Association of Angolan Patients in Portugal, Gabriel Chimuco, meals began to be available on Tuesday.
Gabriel Chimuco, who was speaking to Angolan public radio, understands that the payment of part of the debt has to do with the strong pressure that is being made on the authorities.
"Even because we had already sent several letters to the Ambassador, Carlos Fonseca, from which we had never received any reply. The patients who are staying at the boarding houses, both at Pensão Alvalade and Pensão Luanda, were already more than 30 days without breakfast, lunch and dinner," he said.
The president of the association stressed that "the pension owner decided to suspend the allocation of meals to patients, because the health sector owes more than three years, but since Tuesday patients already have breakfast and lunch.
Regarding the patients who are not housed in the pensions, Gabriel Chimuco said that 11 months ago they were not receiving the subsidy of seven euros per day, but this Thursday they have already been assigned the value of a month.
"They are patients with a specific diet and the sector gives a subsidy of seven euros a day, and these people have their own meals. Also today they started receiving only one subsidy in arrears, but we are talking about 11 months of subsidies and only one month of subsidy has been repaid," he said.
According to the Angolan public radio, the Minister of Health, Teté António, exonerated the head of the health sector at the Angolan Embassy in Portugal, Rosa de Almeida, and appointed to the post the former member of the Angolan Medical Association, João Bastos dos Santos.
For Gabriel Chimuco, the issue of the Angolan health board "is very serious," arguing that "until it is defined, it will be very difficult for any manager to manage the health sector in the diaspora, Portugal and South Africa.
"It gets very difficult. We're talking about huge debts, ranging from three million to five million, we're talking about debts to hospitals, namely the Red Cross, Champalimaud Hospital, debts to pharmacies, to patients," he stressed.
On Monday, three dozen Angolan patients undergoing treatment in Portugal complained of starvation due to delays in support, which led the owner of the boarding houses to cut off the only meal they received, demanding explanations from the embassy.
