“In the next State Budget, we are doing everything we can to ensure that all situations are regularized, all tenders are issued, because we know that the biggest challenge and the greatest asset in the health sector are human resources,” said Filomena Gonçalves, in an interview with Rádio de Cabo Verde (RCV).
The State Budget proposal will be made “according to the country’s capacities” but “special attention is being paid to human resources, especially the regularization of precarious contracts, permanent training and the entry of new resources,” she said.
Filomena Gonçalves classified the entry of new professionals into the Cape Verdean National Health Service as “essential” for the system to respond to needs and “not to lose the gains” already made “in terms of investment, especially in diagnostic means”.
According to the minister, for the first time in a State Budget, personnel expenditure is expected to exceed investment expenditure. “It’s even a paradox, because normally in budgets the emphasis should be on investment, but at the moment, in Health, the priority of priorities is human resources,” said the minister.
“The Integrated Health Development Program will be at the heart of the State Budget policies for 2024,” he added, in order to “guarantee access to quality health care and promote well-being for all, at all ages, creating value for the economy.”