The Ministry of Health allowed on Tuesday the hiring of foreign doctors, the possibility of which will be evaluated based on the results of tenders and the recruitment of specialists by units of the National Health Service (SNS).
“Possible recruitment of doctors abroad may be considered on an additional and temporary basis, depending on the assessment that will be made based on the results of tenders and ongoing recruitment by various institutions,” Manuel Pizarro’s ministry said. Luz agency.
On Friday, the President of the Intermunicipal Community of Leziria do Tejo (CIMLT) expressed hope that the hiring of foreign doctors by the Ministry of Health could reduce the shortage of family doctors in the region.
Pedro Ribeiro said he was concerned that none of the 26 positions tendered to hire family doctors for the region had been filled, but he said he was “hopeful” that hiring foreign clinicians could help resolve the situation.
Also, the mayor of Almeirim (Santarén) recalled the information provided by the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, at a meeting with the mayors of CIMLT on May 15, that foreign doctors would be hired.
The Ministry of Health stressed on Tuesday that a recent tender opened in May succeeded in hiring 314 new general and family medicine doctors.
“Of the 307 new professionals who graduated this year, 306 have applied and 278 have chosen the vacancy and will start working as a family doctor in the SNA, the retention rate is 91%, which is higher than 79% of the 2022 competition and 73% in the 2021 competition ”, — reported in the office of Manuel Pizarro.
According to the ministry, this result also means that “the SNA managed to attract 36 specialists to this competition who graduated in other years” and who are not in public service.
The number of users without an assigned family doctor grew by 4.7% between April and May this year and now exceeds 1.7 million, according to the SNS transparency portal.
According to data provided by Lusa, in April this year, 1,678,226 people did not have a family doctor, and in a month the number of users increased to 1,757,747, representing an increase of almost 80 thousand users.
The Transparency Portal also indicates that just over 30,000 people did not have a family doctor at the choice of the user, and this figure has stabilized since November 2022.
Recently, the SNS executive board announced that about 500,000 users will now have a family doctor after 314 of these general and family medicine specialists were placed in the latest recruitment competition.
On May 2, 978 vacancies were opened in general and family medicine, which corresponds to all scarce places in the country, to retain recent graduates, as well as to attract specialists who did not work in the SNA.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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