The Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, showed this Monday, during the Pharmacist’s Day celebrations in Sintra, the will to resume negotiations with the Order of Pharmacists (OF) on changes in the pharmaceutical career legislation.
Manuel Pizarro guaranteed “an open door to dialogue and cooperation” in the return of negotiations that ended with the resignation of the previous head of Health, Marta Temido.
The president of the Ordem dos Farmacêuticos, Hélder Mota Filipe, told Lusa on Monday that he wants to resolve the “injustices” of the legislation, highlighting the lack of nearly 300 pharmacists in the National Health Service (SNS).
On leaving the Pharmacist’s Day celebration and the OF’s 50th anniversary, the minister recalled that the contracting process for the ‘pharmaceutical residency’ is underway, “which will be the moment of access to the pharmaceutical career in the hospitals” of the SNS and that will admit 143 professionals in a training cycle that will begin in 2023 and end in 2027, and whose entrance exam will be held this Thursday for more than 300 candidates.
“In a single tender, if we solve 50% of the shortcomings, I think it is a positive aspect, a step in the right direction,” Manuel Pizarro told reporters, stressing that the “existing shortcomings” cannot be resolved. “From overnight”. .” other”.
The president of the OF fears “chaos” when the hiring ends, because the lack of human resources will increase: “there will be 300, plus those who go to the private sector and more who go to retirement.”
For this reason, Hélder Mota Filipe wants to create a mechanism that allows “to continue hiring specialist pharmacists for the SNS” while the first pharmacists of the boarding school (pharmaceutical residency) are being trained, something to which Manuel Pizarro responds with “we’ll see”. .
The pharmaceutical career legislation was instituted in 2017, but it was only in 2020 that a diploma was approved that regulated the completion of an internship (pharmaceutical residency) for pharmacists to enter the SNS. ‘
The Minister of Health has also said that “a health information profile” is being created so that pharmacists can access the clinical file of users.
Asked about the proximity of the flu season, Manuel Pizarro mentioned the creation of a plan for the winter and that it will be announced in early October, reinforcing the importance of vaccination to prevent a “new outbreak of Covid or the severity of the flu”. ”. .
Source: Observadora
