The National Federation of Doctors (FNAM) appealed this Wednesday to the President of the Republic to raise awareness in the Government about the importance of the State Budget (OE) 2025 to integrate solutions to attract and retain doctors in the National Health Service (SNS).
In a letter sent to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, which was also sent to the parliamentary groups, the FNAM says that “Ana Paula Martins’ Ministry of Health is limited to covert negotiations with the health sector, when negotiations without inflexibility are urgent, intransigence, but with competence, seriousness and political will, which incorporates solutions for discussion and voting in the OE”.
According to the Federation, led by Joana Bordalo e Sá, the “solutions proposed by doctors are not being considered and the questions raised remain unanswered, in a scenario of great irresponsibility”.
The FNAM considers it essential to immediately adopt measures that protect doctors and other health professionals.
“Doctors want to remain in the SNS, but Ana Paula Martins’ MS cannot continue to force us to go to the private sector or abroad, in a policy of wearing down the SNS”, says the Federation.
For FNAM, “only with fair wages, a valued career and decent working conditions will it be possible to guarantee quality and accessible health care for the entire population, with full scales and teams, in an NHS full of health”.
In the letter, the FNAM expresses its concern about the chaos that is happening in the SNS due to the lack of doctors and other health professionals, “in an aggravated degradation of health care for the population”.
“The ineptitude and lack of political will of the MS (Ministry of Health) (…) put SNS users at risk. Every pregnant woman who has to deliver in an ambulance, every evasive proposal about ringing the doorbell an emergency service, each incomplete schedule, each reduced team, each closed emergency room or citizen without a family doctor, reflects the severity of day-to-day life in the SNS”, warns the FNAM.
Therefore, the FNAM proposes the renegotiation of the medical career and respective salary scale for all doctors, restoring the purchasing power lost since the troika era.
They also defend the restoration of the normal weekly working period of 35 hours, the reinstatement of the Medical Internship in the medical career, the restoration of 25 working days of vacation per year and the five additional days of vacation if taken outside the peak season.
It also requests the reinstatement of 12 hours of emergency service, the possibility of an optional and duly increased regime of exclusive dedication to the NHS, and the negotiation of the resizing of the list of family doctors’ users, team performance indices and complexity of the user.
The FNAM also demands the due updating of the Public Health Authority supplement and the uniform application of the permanent availability regime for all public health doctors.
“Everything to be complemented with greater transparency and streamlining of competitive procedures, the review of the performance evaluation system and the review/revocation of diplomas that clearly worsened the situation of the SNS”, indicates the FNAM in the letter.
Source: www.cmjornal.pt
