Health Minister Ana Paula Martins said this Wednesday that there will be “many health centers” capable of carrying out examinations, but acknowledged the difficulty of having the necessary specialists for the task.
As part of the Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PRR), he said there will be “many health centers with the capacity to address the challenges in terms of additional diagnostic facilities, the challenge (…) is the availability of human resources to accommodate them.”
Stressing that it was not just about recruiting senior diagnostic and therapeutic specialists, the minister told the parliamentary health committee, where she was heard for four hours about the health emergency plan, that “there are many situations” in which vacancies open up and remain must be filled out.
“We can’t actually hire employees. There is a lot of competition, not only in the private sector but also outside the country,” he said, explaining that an anesthesiologist in Belgium earns four times more than in the private sector in Portugal.
The minister acknowledged the possibility of “new models of professional recruitment more similar to the liberal professions model”, allowing professionals to remain in the NHS.
Regarding problems in emergency situations due to the lack of professionals to provide shifts, the official added that a decree-law is being studied that will help for at least another year until everything is “more reorganized, with additional payment for emergency hours,” in addition to other incentives.
“Our goal is not for people to work 800 hours, because that is unbearable. People burn out, leave medicine, leave hospitals, do something else in life, this is not the system,” he said.
“On-call” doctors continue to exist, he said, noting that if the government had not reproduced a decree by former Health Minister Ricardo Mestre, which calls for an additional 40% of the hourly rate, Hospital da Guarda would now have no emergency department.
Regarding the amounts paid, he noted that “there is almost an auction of which site pays the most” but stressed that “that is not the current issue.”
Also responding to questions at a hearing on the National Network for Integrated Continuing Care (RNCCI), the minister said “very little has happened in recent years.”
Ana Paula Martins described the situation in which “the network lives”, especially private social solidarity institutions, “whose daily payments are quite low, with increasing costs, inflation” and difficulties in attracting professionals.
“It is very difficult to survive and treat these patients,” he said, highlighting Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s initiative to place the RNPP under the supervision of the ministries of health and social services to speed up situations such as social hospitalization. .
The minister stated that the level of implementation of the PDP in the RNCP is “very low” and gave an example: “For 5,498 beds, we had 544 tenders and 8 contracts were concluded.”
“I can give dozens of examples, even with the Health Regulatory Authority, the opening of very important institutions, which are stuck for three months waiting for permission,” he said, emphasizing that this situation “cannot continue.”
The Ministry of Health and the Deputy Prime Minister for Cohesion are now signing contracts “as quickly as possible”, while cutting bureaucracy as “these were estimates on top of estimates for architectural and engineering projects that had already been completed and were due to be completed.” there was no bureaucracy on the part of the Ministry of Health, with all due respect, that could solve this problem.”
In his opinion, it is “unacceptable” to have enterprises with closed beds “waiting there for the issuance of paper.”
“Right now we have a law (…) The Executive Council will continue to be involved in this area of continuing and palliative care,” but, he noted, at the moment there is not even a network coordinator, who has resigned.
In Lusa’s message, Health Ministry officials said the dismissal of Sérgio Amadeu, regional palliative care coordinator for ARS Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, took place in January.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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