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Health Minister Marta Temido announced, on Wednesday, that Flexibility should be a factor to consider when hiring health professionals, for being an aspect ‘perhaps’ just as important as ‘technical competence’. The Independent Union of Physicians responded to the minister’s comments, calling it an “unforgivable crime that doctors will not forgive and forget anymore.”
Temedo’s statement was made during a hearing at the Parliamentary Health Committee, regarding the situation at the Setubal Hospital Centre. Asked about the shortage of doctors in the National Health Service and the use of overtime, the minister preferred to talk about the process of appointing these professionals, stressing the need to look for characteristics such as “flexibility” and “resistance”.
It is a good idea for all of us, as a society, to think about the expectations and choices of these professionals. Because, perhaps, other aspects such as flexibility are as important aspects as their technical competence,” Temido said, before adding that health professions “require a great ability to resist, to face stress and wear and we have to invest in it.”
At the same session, the Minister of Health also spoke about the situation of doctors who denounced the lack of conditions at the Hospital de Setúbal and left a comment to these professionals: “The best way to attract human resources is to attract them for work projects and not convey or intensify an image that the institution is facing great difficulties and in An atmosphere of confrontation.
The statements did not satisfy the Independent Syndicate of Physicians, who “crossed any red line that might have been drawn” for them. In a press releaseYES says the statement that doctors should be hired more flexible is An unforgivable insult that doctors will never forgive or forget.
The union also stresses that overtime for NHS doctors is mandatory, which does not happen in the entire public administration, and asks these professionals a “decent base wage”, which is proportional to their “responsibility, with their differentiation, with the toil of his work”.
