The National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) said this Friday that the negotiation protocol presented by the trusteeship was “below expectations” because it did not contain issues that it considered mandatory, such as the salary scale and the replacement of 35 hours a week. .
Leaving the second meeting with the ministerial health team led by Ana Paula Martins, which lasted about 90 minutes, Fnam president Joana Bordalo i Sa said the guardianship presented an overview of the evaluation of doctors, an integrated management and performance evaluation system in public administration and the issue of intern doctors.
According to the union leader, what was presented “does not meet” Fnam’s expectations. “We want to include in this negotiation protocol the issue of wage scales” and the replacement of 35 hours of work per week.
In addition, he argued, the protocol should also “revise legislation that was promulgated during the previous government,” where unconstitutional issues related to full adherence needed to be “reviewed.”
Other legislation that Fnam says should be “revised” concerns family health care facilities and comprehensive care centers.
Joana Bordalo e Sa said that it was impossible to “sign the protocol of negotiations.” This decision was also taken by the Independent Union of Doctors (SIM), which met with the Minister of Health for the first time.
“In any case, the government showed some openness to consider our proposals, and within a month a meeting was agreed upon at which we will see whether these proposals will actually be included in the negotiation protocol or not,” stressed Joana Bordalo e Sa.
The union leader said the National Federation of Doctors would have to review the proposal internally, but reiterated that “at the moment” it would never be in a position to sign off on the negotiations.
Asked whether FNAM left without meeting expectations, the union leader said that it was agreed that there would be openness on the part of the Ministry of Health “to see if there are opportunities to include these axes”, noting that the issue is the wage scale is fundamental because doctors in Portugal “continue to be among the lowest paid at the European level”, meaning that “colleagues, especially those who finish their training, go into the private sector, go into immigration, and they don’t have opportunities to remain in the National Health Service.”
As for what Fnam intends to do if these topics are not included in the protocol, Joana Bordalo e Sa said the main goal now is to find solutions for doctors and understand “whether this ministerial team has the sensitivity to understand what it is questions that really should be [no documento] if they want to effectively do something useful and concrete to get doctors in the NHS to be able to serve the population.”
“If they are not included it will soon become clear whether the level of challenge should arise or whether it will have to be increased, let’s hope not. This is not our goal,” he said.
Before leaving for the meeting, the union leader told reporters that “the SNS cannot wait any longer.”
“We have a shortage of doctors, and it’s not just in the emergency department. It’s May now, and we already have so many gaps that we don’t even really understand what will happen in the summer or what will happen before winter. Therefore, the plans should already be implemented,” he said.
He recalled, on the contrary, that 17% of the population does not have a family doctor, which he considered a “screaming” situation, and also warned about a shortage of doctors in a number of specialties.
The health minister began meetings at 10 a.m. with doctors’ representatives and then with representatives of several nurses’ unions.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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