Doctors’ unions call for urgent dialogue with Minister of Health | Health

Trade union organizations in the health sector hope to begin negotiations with the new Government as soon as possible and emphasize that “there is no time to waste”. The National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) has already sent a request for an urgent meeting to the new Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, as stated by that federation in a statement sent to the newsrooms this Wednesday. Contacted by PÚBLICO, also Helena Ramalho, from the secretariat of the Independent Union of Doctors (SIM), said she expected an attitude of dialogue and willingness on the part of the government official to resolve the problems of the National Health Service (SNS).

“We made this request for dialogue even before the Government took office”, recalls the head of SIM, to complete: “We made it clear that negotiations had to start as soon as possible, for the good of the SNS.”

Fnam says that it will be “allied with all measures that have the capacity to retain and attract doctors to the SNS, with fair salaries and decent working conditions, in order to reverse the departure of doctors to the private sector and emigration”. “There is no time to waste and negotiations must begin immediately”, urges the federation led by Joana Bordalo e Sá, which says it hopes for a dialogue “more fruitful than the negotiations with the previous minister”.

At the same time as he greets Ana Paula Martins and wishes her a “good mandate and with good results​​”, Fnam highlights the urgency in starting negotiations quick and pragmatic, “to avoid the chaos that occurred in 2023, with emergency services closing in dominoes from north to south of the country, due to a lack of doctors”.

This lack of doctors, reinforces Helena Ramalho, who is “the most serious of the various problems that the SNS has: the lack of human resources”. “We have to, in various ways, make the SNS attractive for hiring and retaining doctors. We actually have enough trained doctors who already have the specialty, but in competitions, especially in General and Family Medicine, the percentage [de vagas ocupadas] does not reach 50%. Many doctors choose not to stay in the NHS, which is being defrauded”, he concludes.

Fnam also recalls that solutions are still needed for the SNS to guarantee family doctors for the entire population, as well as consultations and surgeries “on time in the SNS, instead of vouchers for consultations and surgeries in the private sector”.

Among the federation’s proposals to retain doctors in the public health system are the replacement of the 35-hour week and 12 hours of weekly work in the emergency service, the resizing of family doctors’ user lists to 1,500 users and the replacement of the permanent availability supplement for public health.

Fnam’s proposal also focuses on an exclusive, optional and duly increased dedication regime for all SNS doctors, replacing the current full dedication regime, implemented by the previous Government and which the union organization considers to violate the Portuguese Constitution and the directives European labor unions. SIM also criticizes this regime, highlighting the “problems of interpretation in the hospital area”, which need to be clarified and alleviated, as Helena Ramalho says.

Regarding the salary increase of almost 15% that resulted from the interim agreement, both organizations defend the inclusion of all doctors, without exception, who were not covered in it, “including those with a pre-2013 individual employment contract”. Furthermore, SIM recalls, this is an interim agreement, so a new commitment needs to be made.

“With seriousness and competence, the new Government and the new Minister of Health are responsible for finally valuing the medical career and recovering the NHS as one of the pillars of our democracy and in accordance with its constitutional precepts: accessible, universal and of quality for the entire population”, concludes Fnam.

It is recalled that the Prime Minister committed to presenting an emergency health program by June 2nd. In his inauguration speech, Luís Montenegro promised, in the area of ​​health, that the Government will “implement a structural reform that strengthens and preserves the SNS as the basis of the system, but that takes advantage of the installed capacity in the social and private sectors, without useless ideological complexes and with a single concern: the citizen”.

“As we promised, we will draw up an Emergency Program that will be made public before June 2nd,” he said.

Regarding the projection, Helena Ramalho believes that it will be “a limited time to cover so many gaps”. “When years pass and very little is done, in an NHS that is so complex and has so many gaps, doing it in 60 days seems very little to me. Let’s hope it’s not just another stopgap policy.”