GPs, who make up a third of the National Health Service workforce, are meeting in Coimbra on Saturday to voice their concerns and demands, such as reintegration into a medical career.
“Given the strong mobilization of interns during the doctors’ struggle in 2023”, the National Federation of Doctors (FNAM) decided to organize the 1st National Assembly of Interns, as it considered it “urgent to discuss and build bridges” so that young doctors “leave the invisibility to which they have been subjected successive governments.”
Speaking to Lusa, meeting coordinator João Silva said the aim of the initiative is to reaffirm a demanding agenda for prisoners, “to give them a voice”, as getting concrete answers becomes increasingly urgent. to their problems and guarantee them good working and learning conditions.
One of the demands of Fnam and the interns is their reintegration into medical careers, a measure that João Silva says will make it possible to value “a very large proportion” of doctors.
“We now have a very large care workload and we must always be ready to support inpatient services, emergency services and often without decent working conditions,” he stressed.
According to the psychiatrist intern, this situation means that they do not have time to study, meet with the supervisor, travel to trainings, conferences or combine “internship with personal and family life”, in addition to attending trainings, each time they suffer most from the inadequate ratio of consultants for training and trainees, as well as the need to finance their participation in courses and conferences.
Faced with this situation, many doctors, after completing their internship, “go to work in the private service or emigrate in search of better working conditions and decent working hours,” which allows them time to devote themselves to other projects. “that it’s not just hospitalization, but urgency.”
“We understand that this is part of our job, but we don’t want the job to be all about it,” he concluded.
João Silva also highlighted the responsibility that prisoners have in providing services due to the lack of specialists, especially in emergency situations where decisions about patients end up being made by “older prisoners” who find themselves “in a very unfair situation”.
The Fnam president and the meeting’s executive committee president assured Lusa that she would continue to fight for the reinstatement of interns into medical careers, recalling that they represent a third of the 31,000 doctors working at SNS.
“They are full-time doctors, they take responsibility, and therefore there is no point for them to continue to end their career,” defended Joana Bordalo e Sa, noting that if for some reason they ceased to exist, “that it would be a complete collapse” of the National Health Service.
In his opinion, they are a “fundamental element” and should therefore have “good working conditions, be valued in terms of wages and, above all, have quality training.”
However, “they have been mistreated over time” and there has been “some loss of learning,” he lamented, and also expressed concern about the work overload they are subjected to.
In this regard, he recalled a study by the Medical Association, according to which 25% of prisoners experience severe symptoms of “burnout”, and 55.3% are at risk of developing it.
Burnout and workplace harassment are two topics that will be discussed at the meeting, organized by the federation’s internal staff.
“Because trainees are more vulnerable, they are in a more vulnerable position, and we know that harassment in the workplace is something that exists and can often cause trainees to abandon their internship, their training and even their profession,” he stressed. .
Asked whether the number of workplace harassment complaints received by Fnam was increasing, the union leader said that “fortunately they are not coming every day,” but it is increasing, and not just from trainees.
“We also want to help doctors and, above all, young people in more vulnerable situations, identify such situations,” stressed Joana Bordalo e Sa.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.