“The invoices for the year 2024, worth two million euros, are currently being verified and validated”, says Sesaram in a statement, adding that “by the end of this month it is expected that all necessary procedures will be completed so that payments can begin for the first months of 2024.”

The statement was issued following news published in the printed edition of DN/Madeira, which points to a debt owed to taxi drivers of more than two million euros.

“By the end of December 2024, the Health Service of RAM (Autonomous Region of Madeira) had regularized all taxi drivers' invoices outstanding until the end of December 2023, totalling five million euros”, the note states.

The public service recognises that it remains to pay off the two million debt for 2024 and remembers that it guarantees around 1,000 transports of non-urgent patients per day using its vehicles and external providers, including taxi drivers.

“Sesaram provides this transport service for non-emergency patients, relieving families of this burden, however, carrying out this service involves extensive logistics and creates hundreds of processes to manage, making the verification and validation process more time-consuming”.

In the statement, Sesaram states that there are “pending processes” for various reasons, namely “companies/taxi drivers that have not yet issued invoices and uncorrected invoices”.

“The performance of the RAM Health Service is based on dialogue and cooperation, which is why this attitude of understanding with the providers of this service will be maintained”, it is also mentioned.