The outgoing Executive Director of the SNS presented a report on the activities carried out throughout his term, at the request of Minister Ana Paula Martins. CNN Portugal was able to access the document, which leaves an important warning
It is ‘important’ to attract doctors to the National Health Service (SNS). This warning was left to Fernando Araujo, the outgoing CEO of SNS, who estimates that about five thousand professionals should retire this year.
“By 2024, it is expected that there will be about five thousand retirees (professionals reaching retirement age),” said the activity report submitted on Tuesday to the Ministry of Health.
According to the document obtained by CNN Portugal, 1,901 doctors are expected to retire this year, along with 699 nurses and 1,158 operational assistants. In addition, 171 senior diagnostic and treatment technicians will also retire, as well as 794 technical assistants, 139 senior technicians, 37 pharmacists, and about 198 in other professions.
SNSs need to “effectively enhance their human assets” in order to “keep pace with the increasing demand for care provision, with an increasingly aging population and with more associated comorbidities, requiring more care, and more differentiated teams”. The CEO warns: “It is crucial that we are able to attract new specialist doctors and doctors who are outside the NHS (in Portugal or abroad), to respond to health needs” – especially as the ULS model is rolled out to the entire region, which “makes it essential Fill and expand SNS staff, so that existing gaps can be reduced and filled.”
An increase in the number of professionals is therefore expected, “consisting mainly of entries of professionals who are directly involved in the provision of health care”, which should represent 98% of total entries. “This group includes in particular the medical professional group (specialists and trainees in general or special training), the nursing group, and senior health technicians, such as dentists, psychologists, nutritionists, social workers, pharmacists and diagnostic and treatment technicians.” , he adds.
The document states that the “main focus” of the restructuring of SNS should be “strengthening users with a family doctor”, with the aim of ensuring “primary health care, with an increasingly greater vision of user integration”. Besides, “one of the biggest growths expected for 2024” is the number of nurses. Today, the country has about 50,900 nurses, giving Portugal “a ratio of nurses per 1,000 inhabitants, well below the European average.”
Executive management also highlights the need to invest in senior diagnostic and treatment technicians and in senior healthcare technicians, such as pharmacists, dentists and psychologists. He admits that this is an area where the Syrian National Party has not been able to “invest adequately in recruitment.” “This shortage of technicians often hinders the implementation of improvements in care delivery, particularly in the integration of complementary diagnostic and therapeutic modalities sourced from abroad,” the report states.
The document recognizes a “major challenge to efficiency in resource management”: strengthening professional staff. He admits that it “constitutes to a large extent a sine qua non for the success of the ULS model.”
Outgoing Executive Director, Fernando Araujo, was heard in Parliament on Wednesday, where he confirmed the delivery of the activity report requested by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, regarding the activities carried out while he was in office. “Although we were given 60 days to deliver the report on the SNS, we completed the job in half the time,” he said. The delivery of the document marked the departure of Fernando Araujo from the position, which now belongs to Antonio Gandra D. “Almeida.
