This Saturday, the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) asked the government to provide legislation to prevent doctors from working more than the 150 overtime hours they are required to do each year, or 250 if they work exclusively.
“From now on, we are addressing the issue of placing protocols so that doctors do not work more than 150 hours, which they are required to work per year, or 250 hours if they are fully dedicated,” said the president of the federation. News agency Lusa National Council of Doctors (Fnam).
Joana Bordalo e Sa spoke at the end of the National Council of Fnam, which took place all morning in Coimbra to assess the readiness of the Ministry of Health for negotiations and to identify the necessary forms of struggle, namely the strengthening of the movement of doctors who refuse to exceed the legal limit of overtime.
“We discussed various topics and defined our strategy. First of all, we confirmed the decisions we had already made to the Department of Health as key points for being able to retain doctors in the NHS,” he said.
Joana Bordalo e Sa stressed that Fnam understands that the solutions it advocates “are the only ones that can keep doctors in the social network that we want to make public and universal and capable of guaranteeing care for the entire population.”
The leader expressed regret that “at the moment there is no indication that the Ministry of Health of Ana Paula Martins really wants to find a solution.”
In fact, he emphasized the fact that Fnam had a meeting scheduled with the Ministry of Health on June 25, which was practically cancelled the day before.
“We still do not have a start date for this negotiating protocol, which is extremely important for serious negotiations and for us to be able to find solutions for the SNA. We look at this with great concern,” he concluded.
However, the FNAM president stressed that the meeting also determined “an escalation of the struggle, which will continue if nothing is done to discuss and find solutions.”
If this does not happen, Fnam has already decided on an overtime strike in the primary health care sector, followed by a general strike at a date to be determined later.
“This is if the government does nothing to start these negotiations or if some of the solutions that Fnam is defending to have more doctors in the SNS, which is related to the salary scale and working conditions, are not included in the negotiating protocol,” he said.
However, Joana Bordalo e Sa stressed that these combat measures will be determined according to the answers that the ministry gives to Fnam, and that “at the moment there are none yet.”
“If this happens, the responsible will be the Ministry of Health of Ana Paula Martins, which did nothing to ensure that the entire negotiation process was serious and that it took place,” he concluded.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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