The head of the doctors’ union said on Saturday that “there is no plan for the summer (…) capable of withstanding what is happening in the SNS.” [Serviço Nacional de Saúde]Stressing that “interventions” are necessary.
These interventions should make the SNS “more attractive”, so that “it has the doctors it needs, which it currently does not have,” said Carlos Cortes, speaking to journalists at the end of the inauguration ceremony of the new administrative bodies. The dental association, at the Champalimaud Foundation, in Lisbon.
This is because – he pointed out – — The problem with SNS is the “great difficulty” in attracting human resources.
“There are difficulties in the summer, we already know that they exist. They exist, and strangely, as everyone knows, every year and there is no solution in any year. And it seems that governments are always surprised with the summer, with the winter…” he lamented.
“The strategic plans that the Ministry of Health must develop must be published well before the seasonal season to which it refers. (…) The strategic plan [para o Verão] The President pointed out that the Ministry of Health should have been ready since January of this year and was not.
Carlos Cortes added that the emergency plan of the General Directorate of Health still exists, “which was presented in a timely manner”, and the hospitals, many of which were presented, “unfortunately, too late”.
Regarding the situation recorded this weekend in the Algarve, where there were emergency restrictions, the President admitted that the emergency plan focusing resources on the Faro Hospital is not the “appropriate solution”, but the “possible solution”.
Carlos Cortes insisted that the solution involved attracting doctors to the NHS, especially in the most needed specialties, such as paediatrics and obstetrics and gynaecology.
“There is no plan capable of addressing this situation and there is no country in the world that can provide an adequate response (…) in light of this shortage (…) of human resources, especially medical human resources,” he pointed out.
Regarding the goal of expanding coverage for family doctors within a year, the president considered it “an expectation that may be difficult to achieve”, but it is possible “if the government commits itself” to solving “the frightening figure of 1.6 million Portuguese” who do not have this service.
Regarding the strike called by the National Union of Doctors (FNAM) on Friday, the president stressed that “these are union negotiations, on labor issues”, acknowledging that there are “a set of (…) serious problems at the labor level”. The working conditions of doctors, in terms of wage issues, which clearly need to be resolved quickly, were already present in the previous government, have been transferred to this government and clearly deserve the attention of the Ministry of Health”.
In understanding the actions of the unions, Carlos Cortes noted that “there are already limitations” in the provision of health services, including doctors’ strikes, and again focused on the “lack of working conditions” in the SNS.
He pointed out that “reformulating the medical profession, appropriate working conditions, training conditions for doctors, and the issue of dignity of wages are all very important aspects that the Ministry of Health must reconsider.”
