According to the same source, the request for this hearing in the Health Committee will be submitted to Parliament on Wednesday.

The PS's goal with these hearings, which will be requested as urgent, is for Ana Paula Martins and Fernando Araújo to provide explanations about the resignation of the executive director of the National Health Service and his team, which was announced today.

The executive director of the National Health Service announced today that he will submit his resignation, along with his team, to the Minister of Health, claiming that he does not want to be an obstacle to the Government in the policies and measures it deems necessary.

"Respecting the principle of institutional loyalty, I will submit to the Minister of Health, along with the team I lead, the request for resignation from the position of executive director of the National Health Service," said Fernando Araújo in a statement.

According to Fernando Araújo, this "difficult decision" will allow the new authority to "execute the policies and measures it deems necessary, with the required speed, preventing the current executive management (DE-SNS) from being considered an obstacle to its implementation".

"The DE-SNS is a technical body, a public institute of the State, which must be above political issues or partisan agendas, and which executes public policies determined by the Government," the statement signed by Fernando Araújo also highlighted.

The executive management began its activity on January 1, 2023, following the new Statute of the National Health Service (SNS) proposed by the then Minister Marta Temido, with the aim of coordinating the healthcare response of all SNS units and modernizing its management.

According to Fernando Araújo, in the "first and only meeting held" with the authority in the new government, the DE-SNS conveyed its openness to the continuity of functions, in order to complete the ongoing reform, but putting itself at the "disposal of the new government team, if it understood to change the policies and faces of the system".

"We clarified that we did not want legal compensation. Each member of the team has a previous professional life, four of us in the SNS, one in the Ministry of Finance and another in private activity, and that we did not intend to burden the public good in any circumstance," the doctor also guaranteed.

Fernando Araújo also added that he requested that the resignation of the executive management take effect the day after the presentation of the activity report required by the ministry, which he claims he "learned about by email at the same time it was released in the media".

Read Also: Executive director of the SNS submits resignation to the Minister of Health (Portuguese version)