Doctors begin a three-day national strike on Tuesday, but shutdowns in the health sector will continue in the coming weeks, including among pharmacists and nurses.
This strike, called by the Union of Independent Doctors (SIM), will take place from Tuesday to Thursday to force the government to submit a concrete proposal to revise the pay scale as part of negotiations that began in 2022 but did not lead to an agreement between the parties.
On Monday, also called by SIM, a month-long strike by family doctors for working overtime begins, which the union admits will affect “many tens of thousands of consultations” at medical centers.
After the latest round of talks on Friday, the union’s general secretary, Jorge Roque da Cunha, accused the Health Ministry of “failure to submit negotiating documents” and guaranteed that it would only go to the next meeting if it received government proposals in advance.
The protest of these medical workers continues on August 1 and 2, with a new nationwide strike called by the National Federation of Physicians (FNAM), the second to take place about a month after the stoppage that took place on July 5 and 6, in which, according to reports from the union structure, 90% of adherents were registered.
According to FNAM President Joana Bordalo-e-Sa, “all reasonable time has been exhausted” in these negotiations, which began about 15 months ago, and the strike was the “only guarantee of effective” promotion of specific proposals by the ministry.
During the discussion phase of the minutes of negotiations in July 2022 with Minister of Health Martha Temido, the government and unions agreed to include in the negotiations the salary scale of doctors from the National Health Service (SNS).
The controversy in the sector also extends to National Health Service pharmacists, whose union has already given advance notice of several shutdowns that will last until September to demand “serious negotiations” from the government.
This round of strikes begins on Monday with the shutdown of pharmacists across the country and continues on September 5 in the regions of Beja, Évora, Faro, Lisbon, Portalegre, Santarém and Setúbal, as well as in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira.
The strike is scheduled for 12 September in Braga, Bragança, Porto, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real, Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Guarda, Leiria and Viseu, ending the protest on 19 September with another nationwide strike.
The Democratic Union of Nurses of Portugal (Sindepor) has also decided to embark on a serious one from 1 to 4 August in the Lisbon metropolitan area after talks it had recently held with the government on a career review turned out to be “inconclusive”.
This protest by nurses will cover 18 municipalities of the Lisbon agglomeration and will take place from 00:00 1 to 24:00 on August 4, at which time this year’s World Youth Day will take place in Lisbon, the meeting of thousands of young people with Pope Francis, the main ceremonies will be held in the Eduardo VII Park and Tagus Park, north of the Nasoins Park. on the banks of the Tagus.