There will still be a shortage of specialists in general and family medicine, admits the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro. But in 2023, the government plans to press ahead with new measures to reduce the number of 1.3 million people without access to a family doctor, including passing up to 50 units to higher-paid models to attract professionals.
In an interview with Negócios e Antena 1, on the Conversa Capital programme, the minister said that in 2023, “about fifty” family health units (USFs) would meet the conditions for moving to Model B, whereby teams associated with better performance in access to care would be rewarded by population.
But “the exact number depends on the dynamics of the professionals, because the family health units come from the initiative of the professionals. It is not an assumption,” he notes.
Lisbon, Valle do Tejo, Alentejo and Algarve will be priority areas to solve the family health team shortage, with their own plans to do so. For Greater Lisbon, the Minister has already informed Parliament of the intention to open 200 vacancies for general and family medicine doctors.
For the country as a whole, Negócios and Antena told 1, the intent is “to hire at least the last number of years, between 400 and 500, in the next year and beyond.”
At the same time, Manuel Pizarro hopes to maintain the level of retirement of specialists. This year, 1,200 SNS doctors will be able to retire, but less than half of them will, he says.
The minister also anticipates new changes in incentives to establish doctors in the most disadvantaged areas. “We will not be able to solve all the problems, and I will not feed this illusion. But we can improve, for example, by facilitating that instead of competing individually, young doctors can immediately compete as a team and form a family health unit team.”
