The Independent Doctors’ Union (SIM) understands that the executive director of the National Health Service (SNS), António Gandra d’Almeida, is being “quite realistic” in the predictions he makes regarding the influx of emergency services during the emergency season. winter.
In statements to the Renaissancethe president of SIM, Nuno Rodrigues, points out what he classifies as a “chronic” lack of human resources.
“We are going to have a complex winter in terms of human resources management. It seems to me that there is some expectation management here, but also a lot of realism. In fact, the SUS is not yet stabilized and many resources still need to be hired. We hope that now, in December, the Government will give a very strong signal of reaching an interim agreement with doctors so that professionals can actually remain in the SUS”, he argues.
SIM expects to resume negotiations with the Government on the new salary scales next month, even so, Nuno Rodrigues emphasizes that stability is far from being achieved.
“The summer indicated that there was a lot of difficulty in maintaining the scales and this will also happen in winter. Therefore, only with structural measures will we be able to change the national perspective so that this chronic lack is not so recurrent in emergencies, but also in health centers. We remember that there are still 1.5 million Portuguese people without a family doctor assigned and that if this were not the case, these users would most likely not go to the emergency room”, he points out.
The SIM president also recommends that the eligible population join the flu and covid-19 vaccination campaign, “to prevent emergency rooms from being clogged with diseases that can be prevented through vaccination”.
As part of a visit to the Santarém District Hospital, where he met with the Board of Directors, António Gandra D’Almeida highlighted to the Lusa agency the efforts to prepare hospitals, ensuring that the SNS and hospital units are taking measures to respond to increased demand and prevent emergencies from reaching “their limit”.
On the same occasion, the person responsible admitted the existence of “constraints in medical teams” in several regions of the country and also stated: “We are going to have a bad winter, we have to work to try to overcome or reduce this excess need for assistance”.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
