As of September, health professionals had accumulated more than 17 million overtime hours. Doctors, nurses and operating assistants complain of physical and psychological exhaustion.
Since the first case of covid-19 appeared, in March 2020, health professionals have not had a rest. The number of overtime hours also increased exponentially.
According to Jornal de Notícias (JN), doctors, nurses and operational assistants worked more than 17 million hours of overtime between January and October, which is an increase of six million over 2019.
Exhausted health professionals do not welcome the Ministry of Health incentives found in the state’s 2022 budget, which target those working overtime.
Overtime should mean extra rest, but no one knows if you’ll enjoy it. Between January and September, health professionals enjoyed just over 6,600 vacation days, less than half of the same period in 2019.
According to JN, which cites data from the NHS portal, sick absences have increased by 44% this year. Doctors, nurses and assistants were on sick leave for 634,000 days.
