The president of the Order of Physicians (OM) demanded this Monday the tutelage to create concrete measures that motivate doctors to remain in the National Health System (SNS) without looking at internal doctors as “slaves of the system”.
We have to give people other working conditions. Interns cannot be looked at as if they were slaves to the system. This is neither possible nor acceptable in a democratic country and there must be solutions”, said Miguel Guimarães in Porto after a meeting with Internal Medicine interns.
The president of the OM questioned the Minister of Health and demanded concrete measures to retain doctors in the SNS, admitting that, without solutions, “There is a risk of emergencies without doctors to work”.
It is necessary to act and carry out the necessary reforms so that these young inmates are the specialists of tomorrow and choose to stay in the SNS. In Portugal we have enough doctors to respond to what the SNS needs. We wouldn’t even need all of them. But the truth is right now more than 50% of the doctors we train are abroad. We have to get an option rate of around 80%,” said Miguel Guimarães.
But achieving this option rate “is not achieved with the measures that the Government has taken, without respecting doctors as they deserve to be respected and without applying structural measures and giving competitive capacity” to the SNS, added the president.
On August 19, a letter was delivered to the Ministry of Health, signed by 416 of the 1,061 internal medicine interns throughout the country, demanding better working and training conditions and refusing to work more than 150 overtime hours a year.
Internal Medicine physicians not available for an additional 150 additional hours per year
In the press conference held this Monday after the meeting with a group of inmates, Miguel Guimarães revealed that the letter has already been signed by 482 doctorswhich corresponds to “almost 50% of the Internal Medicine interns in the country”.
In said letter, the internal doctors communicate their unavailability to perform more than 150 overtime hours a year and report that, given the work demands, they consider that the training of the interns “is compromised”, since they are constantly ensuring the scales of urgency, “taking place in shifts that must be guaranteed by specialistsin clear violation of the criteria of training suitability for Internal Medicine.
Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine in solidarity with the inmates who signed a letter to the minister
Considering that the measures approved until this Monday “they are insufficient” In order to solve the difficulties experienced daily in the provision of care, the inmates communicate in the letter that they will deliver individually and with the respective hospital administrations to draft refusal to perform more than 150 overtime hours per year.
They will also deliver disclaimer acts when they are destined for urgent work and the scales of this service do not comply with the regulations.
This letter comes at the same time that the Government approved a temporary remuneration scheme for the additional work of doctors in the emergency services, but Miguel Guimarães sought to underline this Monday that what is at stake is not the financial part.
We are not talking about money. If the minister thought that with this magic formula of paying the same hourly rate as doctors and service providers pay, she would solve the situation, does not resolve. This is justice and fairness. We have to get down to business and make it happen.. It is not about making plans and follow-up commissions”, she concluded.
As for the conclusions of this Monday’s meeting, the OM must present -“as soon as possible tomorrow (Tuesday), in principle”- a summary of the declarations collected and the measures that it considers must be implemented “urgently”.
Source: Observadora
