The Ministry of Health returns this Thursday to the negotiating table with unions representing doctors, a month after the last round of negotiations ended without an agreement.
The Independent Union of Doctors (SIM) and the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) were called in on Monday by the Department of Health to resume negotiations, while the National Health Service faces a crisis in emergency services due to the refusal of more than 2,000 doctors to work overtime in addition to mandatory 150 hours.
Health Minister Manuel Pizarro said on Wednesday that the Health Ministry is “very ready” to meet doctors’ demands and expects “the same readiness” from unions at a negotiating meeting scheduled for that day.
“We will be very willing to approach the concerns of the professionals, hoping that on the other side there will be the same willingness to understand that the decisions that are made must be good for the Portuguese, good for the National Health Service and also positive for the professionals,” he said government official speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 2nd National Congress for the Distribution of Pharmaceuticals in Oeiras.
In a call for the meeting published by the Independent Doctors’ Union, the Department of Health says the “business agenda” is “negotiations on pay scales and other issues.”
The Independent Doctors’ Union, in a note published on its website, said it would “obviously be present” but regretted that the call was not accompanied by “again, concrete and objective written proposals from the government.”
“We hope that in the second item of the Agenda [outros assuntos] There is room for discussion on other points enshrined in the negotiating protocol signed in 2022, and in respect of which SIM had the opportunity to formally present its proposals, as in the case of the Private Standards for the Organization and Discipline of Medical Work and Special Emergency Care Teams,” says in a note.
On the eve of the meeting, the health minister was in parliament for an urgent debate at the request of the SDP, having been questioned by the entire opposition about the executive’s decisions for the sector, but left MPs with virtually no response.
“The government is committed to a serious dialogue with medical professionals,” he confirmed, emphasizing that it cannot “carry on a dialogue in the Assembly of the Republic” that it will “carry on at the negotiating table.”
Several hospitals in the country are having difficulty maintaining full team strengths, especially for emergency services, due to doctors’ refusal to work more than the 150 annual overtime hours required by law.
In a survey last week on overtime waivers, the National Federation of Physicians highlighted how the situation is leading to closures and restrictions on emergency services, as well as the scale of other hospital services.
Negotiations between the government and doctors’ unions began in 2022, but the parties failed to reach consensus on key issues such as a new pay scale and a new full commitment regime. During the negotiations, unions called several strikes to express their dissatisfaction with the impasse.
The last meeting between the Ministry of Health and trade unions took place on September 12 at an extraordinary negotiation meeting, which ended without reaching an agreement after 16 months of negotiations.