Data from the Regional Health Service show that the service’s debt to suppliers approached 200 million euros (197.5 million) last year, according to reporting from the newspaper Diário Insular from Angra do Heroísmo.
This compares with 135 million euros in 2019, 144 million in 2020, 128 million in 2021, and 164 million in 2022.
The three hospitals in the region have the highest debt, which stood at 156 million last year, 127 million in 2022, 109 million in 2021, 129 million in 2020, and 122 million in 2019.
Regarding the island health units and the Azores Oncology Center, debts to suppliers rose from 13 million euros in 2019 to 15 million euros in 2020 and 19 million euros in 2021. In 2022, this debt was 37 million euros; in 2023, it was 41.4 million euros.
Speaking to DI newspaper, the Regional Secretary for Health and Social Security, Mónica Seidi, said that she didn’t have an up-to-date figure for the debt owed to suppliers in the Regional Health Service but stressed that an agreement with the Montenegro government had led to an inflow of 75 million euros to solve this problem.

“It was possible, through this new government of the Republic, to convert commercial debt into financial debt, and there was an injection of 75 million into the Regional Health Service,” said Mónica Seidi, who said that the amount had already been transferred. “The Socialist governments kept saying they would do it but never did. Last year, they were supposed to transfer 50 million, but then the Minister of Finance never signed the order. This year, there was authorization under the new Minister of State and Finance, Miranda Sarmento. The order was signed quickly, allowing the commercial debt to be converted into financial debt,” she said. Forty of the 75 million euros were allocated to the island health units, said Mónica Seidi, and the remaining 35 million to the hospitals.

“I don’t have an updated debt figure, but these 75 million were used to make payments to suppliers. That’s exactly what they’re for. We can’t do anything other than that, it’s not for salaries. Of course, we have to check with the Government of the Republic what was paid with that money,” she said.
Mónica Seidi stressed that the executive will need “more time” to solve the problem, not least because the “chronic underfunding of the Regional Health Service exists, and we have never hidden that fact.”
“Given the chronicity of the debt, we won’t solve everything in a year. What we want is for there to be the same understanding on the part of the Republic in the coming years and for them to once again grant us this possibility of converting commercial debt into financial debt, so that we can make a similar amount of money and therefore continue to slow down the increase in this debt,” she said.

The regional secretary stressed that the problem deserves an in-depth approach. “It’s clear that we’re paying off the debt, but if nothing is done, it will increase again. There needs to be some structural changes, which are being studied, so that, as well as paying off the debt, we can reduce costs and slow down this evolution that was being noticed,” stressed Mónica Seidi.

in Diário Insular-José Lourenço, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.