The strike of interns this Wednesday registered a “very expressive” participation – from 83% to 85%, the general secretary of the Independent Union of Physicians told Luce, assessing the first day of the stop.
According to Jorge Roque da Cunha, the effects of the strike, the first by internal affairs doctors this Wednesday and Thursday, are being felt both in hospitals and in primary health care facilities.
“It is important that the government understand this message,” the union leader said, predicting that if there is no agreement with workers, the situation for the National Health Service will “get worse.”
SIM went on strike to demand higher wages and professional development in order to advance their careers.
In a conversation with Lusa at the end of the morning, Roque da Cunha assured that the minimum services were being carried out.
By protesting, the union also intends to draw attention to the “big job” that some 6,500 interns are doing, “frequently” replacing specialists and working hundreds of hours of overtime, given the “lack of resources.”
The suspension, which for the first time covers physicians in training for a specialty, is part of a wider range of strikes, in various forms and regions, carried out by SIM until September to achieve decent wages for all employees. doctors.
SIM claims that the medical internship has become “the first level of a medical career”.
The shutdown coincided with an overtime strike by family doctors, which was supposed to end on Tuesday but will last until September 22.
Doctors have already completed a three-day nationwide strike, July 25-27, and a two-day strike in the Central Region, August 9 and 10.
SIM has published a new strike notice on August 30 and 31 in the Alentejo, Algarve and Azores regions.
On August 10, the doctors’ unions and the government ended their fifth extraordinary negotiating meeting without reaching an agreement on a pay scale revision, the main item on the list of demands brought to the negotiating table that began in 2022.
At the end of the meeting, Roque da Cunha told Luza that there was no reason to abandon the strikes planned before September, saying that the guardianship supported a proposal for a 1.6% pay rise for most occupations.
According to the Ministry of Health, the government’s proposal means a 24% increase in the salaries of SNS doctors globally.
According to Guardianship, hospital doctors who integrate total dedication will have a 35-hour week schedule, to which an additional five hours of work per week must be added, as well as a salary increase corresponding to two levels of pay, plus a surcharge. in this new mode 20%.
SIM understands that the proposed new full-time SNS regime is “not attractive” to physicians due to the expected workload (300 hours of overtime per year).
A new negotiating meeting between trade unions and the government is scheduled for 11 September.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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