After two years of the pandemic and enormous pressure on NHS professionals, the number of absenteeism from work due to illness, in 2022, will reach numbers never recorded before: there were more than three million absenteeism for this reason, which corresponds to an increase of 54% compared to in 2019.
The calculations are made this Thursday by Newspaperwhich also indicates that this number is higher than the number recorded during the years of the epidemic, when thousands of health professionals were infected with the Covid-19 virus and isolated them.
Data from the SNS transparency portal, cited by the paper, shows that days of absence due to illness have increased since 2014 (except for two slight declines in 2017 and 2021), reaching 3,006,737 in 2022 across all public health facilities. , such as hospitals and health centers, but also in INEM or Infarmed, of the Ministry of Health. This value corresponds to half of the total absenteeism reported by the 150,016 health professionals who were working on social networking services at the end of last year.
Among other reasons for absenteeism, about 30% of absences are justified by parental protection, and 4% are due to work accidents or occupational disease.
Although the number of SNS professionals has been increasing over the past few years, this has not translated into growth in productivity. Among the various factors is the increase in absenteeism in a sector that was historically high which is explained by various reasons, such as the mental and physical health of professionals, after two years of tremendous pressure they have been under due to a pandemic.
JN heard Ordem dos Enfermeiros President Ana Rita Cavaco mention that the group of professionals she represents is the “record holder for overtime hours” and that there are known cases of high levels of burnout and Burnt in this professional group. In addition, he points out that a lack of motivation with jobs and wages, as well as shift work, also contribute to the physical and mental exhaustion of nurses.
The new president of the Medical Association, Carlos Cortes, says there are no “studies explaining why people are getting sicker” – whether for infectious or mental health reasons. He blames the government for not doing an assessment of the impact of the pandemic on these professionals.
For Xavier Barreto, president of the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators (APAH), these figures show the effects of the pandemic on health professionals. But for the administrator, the current working conditions at SNS are also at risk, which involves “too much pressure, with more shifts than would be desirable,” resulting in “low-motivated teams,” he told JN.
