The Ministry of Health will convene the unions representing doctors for a meeting on Thursday afternoon, a ministry source confirmed to Lusa.
According to the same source, the Independent Union of Doctors (SIM) and the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) have been called upon to resume negotiations at a time when the National Health Service faces a crisis in emergency services due to the refusal of more than 2,000 doctors to work overtime in in addition to the required 150 hours.
The President of the Order of Doctors, Carlos Cortes, announced on Wednesday after a meeting with Health Minister Manuel Pizarro that the government is open to resuming negotiations on issues that have been closed, namely the establishment of a 35-hour schedule, weekly, as well as on issues related to medical careers.
Meanwhile, the President of the Republic said on Friday that the current health problems are “complex and critical”, but he believes that “positive points” will be achieved in the dialogue between doctors and the government in the coming days.
“It’s a difficult situation, but when they tell me that the dialogue is ongoing, I believe it,” Marcelo Rebelo de Souza said.
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.
The head of state admitted that he spoke again with the president of the Medical Association, hoping that it would be possible to obtain “positive points” in the dialogue between these medical workers and the leader of António Costa.
In recent weeks, several of the country’s hospitals have found it difficult to maintain full staffing levels, especially for emergency services, due to doctors refusing to work more than the 150 annual overtime hours required by law.
In a survey this week on overtime waivers, the National Federation of Physicians stressed that this situation is leading to closures and restrictions not only on emergency services, but also on the scale of other hospital services.