Bloc warns that the future of the SNS depends on negotiations between doctors and the government

The left bloc considered this Saturday that the future of the National Health Service (NHS) depends on negotiations between the government and doctors, and warned Minister Manuel Pizarro not to create a “simulacra” of an attempt to reach an agreement.

These positions were outlined by Bloc de Esquerda coordinator Mariana Mortagua in statements to journalists at the end of a visit to Benfica’s municipal market, hours before the Health Ministry and medical unions resumed negotiations in an attempt to reach an agreement. agreement on wages.

“The future of SNS depends on these negotiations. If the government doesn’t find a way to hire health workers, there will be no SNS,” he said.

In front of reporters, Mariana Mortagua left several warnings for Health Minister Manuel Pizarro, noting that problems in the public health system “cannot be solved through simulacra of negotiations.”

“We need to take negotiations seriously. This is what we expect from the government and the Minister of Health,” he said, before defending the medical unions in this negotiation process with the head of the PS.

“Doctors and healthcare workers champion NHS users because they know it is only by creating professionals and clinicians in emergency services, hospitals and health centers that there can be a future. It is very important that the government understands what is at stake.” “, he said, immediately after issuing a new warning to Minister Manuel Pizarro.

“The government may even think it can win over doctors through fatigue, in simulacra of negotiations that lead nowhere. But doctors cannot be defeated. If that happens, the country will lose because without health workers there is no NHS,” he said. highlighted.

Faced with the prospect that cutting doctors’ work hours without other workers’ compensation measures could jeopardize access to SNS, Mariana Mortagua countered that access to SNS was jeopardized by a system “depending largely on professionals who work overtime for months at a time.” in year”.

“The Health Minister is saying that these professionals who are working overtime plus three or four months of overtime will have to do it forever, and if they don’t, it’s their responsibility for what happens on the social network. This is not asked of anyone. The boss cannot ask the employee to work three or four months a year beyond working hours, otherwise it is his fault,” he reacted.

According to the coordinator of Bloco de Esquerda, “the person who must guarantee the conditions so that the SNS can function in compliance with working hours is the Minister of Health, and for this there is only one option: the involvement of doctors in the SNS.”

“But SNS doctors are either taken into the private sector or emigrated because the salaries do not allow them to live in Portugal according to their qualifications, efforts and working hours, and also because they work too many hours. The only way to retain doctors is to have fair pay and shorter hours. We can get lost in the debate about whether to raise wages or cut hours, but if we don’t, there will be no doctors in the NHS,” he insisted.

The latest round of negotiations took place last Tuesday and lasted more than eight hours, but no agreement could be reached: the Independent Union of Doctors (SIM) and the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) demanded a lateral salary increase of 30 people. %.

More than 30 hospitals in the country are facing restrictions and temporary closures due to administration difficulties filling doctor rosters after more than 2,500 doctors refused to work overtime in addition to the required 150 annual hours.

The crisis has already forced SNS chief executive Fernando Araujo to admit that this month could be dramatic if the government and medical unions fail to reach an understanding.