After pressure, Nísia appoints PT member to head federal hospitals in RJ

The Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, fired the director of the Department of Hospital Management (DGH), Alexandre Telles, this Monday (18), and appointed the former PT deputy and current superintendent of the Ministry of Health in his place. in Rio de Janeiro, Maria Aparecida Braga.

Telles had been appointed by Nísia to be a kind of interventionist at federal hospitals in Rio de Janeiro. In addition to Telles, the national secretary of Specialized Health Care, Helvécio Magalhães, was also fired.

The dismissals occurred one day after a report aired on the program Fantástico, from TV Globoshowing the precariousness of federal hospitals in Rio de Janeiro.

Telles’s permanence in office was also being threatened by pressure from the Workers’ Party (PT) and unions. Student of Nísia at Fiocruz and former president of the Doctors’ Union in RJ, Telles had the approval of the PT at the beginning of his administration.

It turns out that with the changes implemented by Telles, starting in April, the DGH would begin to concentrate the purchases and hiring of the 6 hospital units of the federal network in the state. The measure would be an attempt to put an end to the abandonment and waste recorded in the units.

In a note about Telles’ dismissal, the Ministry of Health said that the “change occurs in view of the need for transformation in the management of the DGH” and reported on the creation of a “management committee in order to guide and practice management acts relating to federal hospitals ”.

Furthermore, according to the note, Telles’ place was now occupied by the current superintendent of the Ministry of Health in Rio de Janeiro, Maria Aparecida Braga. According to the Ministry, Maria Aparecida will carry out both functions.

On February 14, Maria Aparecida had a meeting with union representatives from the health sector in Rio de Janeiro. At the meeting, unionists asked for a change of command at the DGH.

Maria Aparecida, who is better known as Cida Diogo, already served a term as a federal deputy for the PT, between 2007 and 2010; and as a state deputy, between 1997 and 2007. Cida was also vice-mayor of Volta Redonda (RJ), her hometown.

On election day in 2010, when she was trying to get a seat in the Legislative Assembly of RJ, Cida Diogo was arrested in the act, accused of polling. Cida Diogo still received 23,534 votes that year, but failed to be elected.