Federal court suspends removal of secretary.

Pernambuco 247 - The president of the Federal Regional Court (TRF) of the 5th Region, Francisco Wildo Lacerda Dantas, suspended the decision of Judge Roberto Wanderley Nogueira, of the 1st Federal Court, which ordered the immediate removal of the Secretary of Health of Pernambuco, Antônio Figueira (PSB), and the reopening of the Bone Marrow Treatment Center (CTMO) of the Hematology and Hemotherapy Foundation of Pernambuco (Hemope).

The removal came after a class-action lawsuit filed by doctors Antônio de Oliveira and Liliane Peritori alleged that Figueira had remained president of the Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira (Imip) – a private institution – until the eve of his inauguration as Secretary of Health of Pernambuco, maintaining close ties with the hospital. The lawsuit also questioned the closure of the CTMO and the transfer of services provided to the population to a privately owned health institution.

In his decision, the president of the TRF5 observed that "the removal of the political agent, before giving the defendant the opportunity to request a review of the judicial act, represents an unequivocal threat to public order, in its administrative sense, insofar as the Judiciary unduly interferes in the prerogative of the State Governor to choose and dismiss his collaborators, appointing and firing them freely, in accordance with the Federal Constitution."

Regarding Wanderley's second decision – to reopen the CTMO – the Federal Court understood that the referral of patients from the Center to the Real Hospital Português (RHP) was a measure taken in 2011 aimed at providing better care for the population at relatively low costs. "The TRF respected the decisions of the Federal Government, believing that referring the population to the Hospital Português constituted a public policy, aiming to achieve greater efficiency in patient care, offering them state-of-the-art care at a significantly lower cost.", Dantas justified his decision.