Ana Jorge (born 1949) is a pediatrician, and a Portuguese politician and member of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), who served as Minister of Health.

Early life and career

Ana Maria Teodoro Jorge was born on 23 September 1949 in

Lourinhã Lourinhã () is a municipality in the District of Lisbon, in the Oeste Subregion of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 25,735, in an area of 147.17 km². The seat of the municipality is the town of Lourinhã, with a population of 8,800 inhab ...

in Portugal. In 1983, she obtained a degree in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

. The following year she qualified for specialization in

pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

. Having worked at the Caneças Health Centre in

Greater Lisbon Grande Lisboa () or Greater Lisbon is a former Portuguese NUTS III subregion integrated in the Lisboa Region. It was abolished at the January 2015 NUTS 3 revision. It is part of the historical Estremadura Province. It includes the capital and ...

between 1977 and 1983, she became a pediatric nurse at the Hospital de Dona Estefânia in the centre of

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

for seven years from 1984. From October 1991, she moved to the

Garcia de Orta Garcia de Orta (or Garcia d'Orta) (1501 – 1568) was a Sephardic Jewish physician, herbalist and naturalist of the Portuguese Renaissance, who worked primarily in the former Portuguese capital of Goa and the Bombay territory (Chaul, Bassein & Da ...

hospital. From 1985 to 1992, she also worked as an assistant at the National School of Public Health of

NOVA University Lisbon NOVA University Lisbon ( pt, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, ), or just NOVA, is a Portuguese public university whose rectorate is located in Campolide, Lisbon. Founded in 1973, it is the newest of the public universities in the Portuguese capital ...

, specializing in maternal, child, school and adolescent health. Jorge was appointed Director of the Pediatrics Department at Garcia de Orta Hospital briefly in 1996, and again from June 2001 to January 2008. In March 1996, Jorge became coordinator of the Lisbon health sub-region, then took over the presidency of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Lisbon and the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see #Name, below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections ...

Valley from January 1997 until December 2000. She was a member of the national leadership of the Portuguese League for the Fight against Epilepsy from 1987 to 1994, and was a member of the leadership of the Pediatrics Group of the

Ordem dos Médicos The Order of Physicians ( pt, Ordem dos Médicos) is the public entity that serves as the regulatory and licensing body for medical practitioners in Portugal. As a professional order A professional order is an organization which, in a given terr ...

(Order of Physicians), which serves as the regulatory and licensing body for the medical profession, for five years from 1993. Her other roles have included being President of the UNICEF National Committee for Baby-Friendly Hospitals, from 2012.

Political career

On 31 January 2008, Ana Jorge was appointed Minister of Health in the first government of

José Sócrates José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he ...

, leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS). She replaced António Correia de Campos. This appointment caused some surprise because, in addition to being independent, Jorge had supported the socialist

Manuel Alegre Manuel Alegre de Melo Duarte, GCL (born 12 May 1936) is a Portuguese poet and politician, member of the Socialist Party, and a candidate for the 2006 Portuguese presidential election. He ran again in the 2011 presidential election, this time bac ...

in the 2006 presidential election against

Mario Soares is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...

, official candidate of the PS. In the following national elections in September 2009, Jorge was placed first on the list of PS candidates for

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

and secured a seat in the Assembly of the Republic. With Sócrates continuing as Prime Minister, she retained her post as Minister of Health until the elections of 2011, after which she was replaced by

Paulo Macedo Paulo Macedo a Portuguese business manager and is the CEO of Caixa Geral de Depósitos since 2017. He was the Portuguese Health Minister from 2011 to 2015 and general director of taxes and chairman of the Fiscal Administration Board (2004–2007) ...

. Jorge was also President of the Municipal Assembly of Lourinhã from 2005 to 2013.

Honours and awards

* Jorge received the Pais e Filhos (Parents and Children) Trophy awarded by ''Pais e Filhos'' magazine in 1994. * She received the Medal of Merit from the Order of Physicians in 2018. * She received the Distinguished Service Gold Medal from the Ministry of Health in 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jorge, Ana 1949 births Government ministers of Portugal Living people Members of the 12th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians University of Lisbon alumni Women government ministers of Portugal

Early life and career

Political career

Honours and awards

See also

References