The BE coordinator and PCP general secretary on Tuesday accused the government of lacking “political will” to address the problems at the social network and wanting to “privatise it piecemeal” as it defended valuing doctors’ careers.
Just over a dozen doctors gathered in front of Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital on Tuesday as part of a national doctors’ strike called by FNAM, chanting “People deserve SNS” or holding up signs saying “This is a strike because it’s serious and all for the National Health Service” or “1.5 million users without a family doctor.”
Speaking to reporters at the meeting, Bloco de Esquerda (BE) coordinator Mariana Mortagua noted that the problem of “the shortage of doctors and the lack of conditions for doctors to work in the National Health Service (SNS)” has already been resolved. “already” has dragged on for a long time.
“This government does not want to negotiate on pay. We have a minister who is compounding incompetence and authoritarianism and a huge lack of political will to negotiate on pay and conditions so that doctors can work in the NHS,” he charged.
The BE coordinator stated that “the strategy of this government is exactly the same as that of the previous government, which is to stall and delay negotiations, rejecting in practice the revision of the remuneration tables and working conditions of doctors and finding legal remedies.”
“There is only one difference: this government has already suggested that it has a plan, which is to exhaust the resources of the SNS and begin to privatize it piece by piece. This is the big difference between the current government and the previous one,” he said, arguing that the government’s health minister himself has already admitted that the health emergency plan serves to “transfer to the private sector those parts of the social network that no longer function due to lack of conditions.”
“The bloc here, as in the last few years, says a very simple thing: there is a proposal that solves the SNS problem and concerns wages and increasing basic pensions, which professionals, doctors, work on, with the creation of incentive systems, but which value their work and reduce working hours,” he emphasized.
In turn, the general secretary of the PCP, Paulo Raimundo, who was also present at this meeting, argued that in order to solve the problem of the SNS it is necessary to “value its professionals, its doctors, respect them, create working conditions and salaries for them.”
“The only problem with the SNS is the lack of human resources, resources, professionals, and it is not difficult to solve the problem of the SNS. There is no political will for this, the political will is different: to dismantle the SNS, to create all the conditions for doctors to step aside and take over the business of those who make disease a business,” he criticized.
Paulo Raimundo considered that “the options that already came from the previous government are maintained and emphasized in the current government”, criticizing in particular the health emergency plan, which he considered “a plan that guarantees resources for those who make a business out of the disease”.
According to the PCP general secretary, this route “does not serve doctors, nurses, health workers, users and the NHS, but rather serves the few who are fed up with the misery of the many”.
“This cannot continue: disrespect, lack of appreciation, it’s all business. And we are not selling potatoes or milk here – there is a lot to say about that – we are dealing with health. And health. This is not a joke and not a business,” he believes.
FNAM began a two-day general strike today, as well as a stoppage of additional work in primary health care until August 31, accusing the care service of “intransigence and inflexibility.”
According to the FNAM president, participation in the strike is about 70%, while in a number of regions of the country, operations and receptions have been cancelled.