SNS pharmacists return today to strike on the first of three days in June

National Health Service (NHS) pharmacists are on strike again on Thursday, the first of three days scheduled for this month, intermittently and in various ways, demanding progress in custodial negotiations.

This Thursday, the strike covers the entire mainland and autonomous regions, on the 27th it will take place in the districts of Beja, Évora, Faro, Lisbon, Portalegre, Santarém, Setúbal, as well as in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, and on the 29th will be in the regions of Braga, Bragança, Porto Viana do Castelo and Vila Real, Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Guarda, Leiria and Viseu.

After a meeting in January with the Department of Health, which the union described as “an absolute disappointment”, the union structure says that there were, however, other meetings, but emphasize that there was no real progress in the negotiations in any of them, given that ” were the lack of political will on the part of the Minister of Health” to resolve the situation.

In a conversation with Lusa, when the strike notice was delivered on May 29, President of the National Union of Pharmacists Enrique Regengo said that the successes in the meetings were “very little” and in matters “that even negotiations should not”, citing 100 vacancies as an example. which were supposed to be open before July last year. The leader also recalled that at the beginning of this year, only 34 people went to the competition.

“Institutions are completely understaffed and are getting smaller because people are leaving (…). We have a thousand pharmacists in the National Health Service (SNS) who are leaving,” Enrique Regengo warned, adding: “Fortunately, pharmacists have scientific training in colleges, which gives them a wide range of opportunities.”

Evaluation of the profession, followed by revision and updating of salary scales to take into account the academic and professional qualifications of pharmacists, full accounting of seniority in the SNA for promotion and career development, and effective links of pharmacists to work in the service sector with precarious contracts are some of the requirements. .

In addition, they require that the number of pharmacists in the SNA correspond to the needs and complexity of the pharmaceutical activities carried out, the recognition and approval of the titles of specialists awarded by the Order of Pharmacists, as well as the definition and regulation of a “special and transitional process to streamline access to the pharmaceutical specialty / residency for pharmacists accepted at work after March 1, 2020.

A minimum number of services are planned, with the union suggesting – on prior notice – that they work in services that operate continuously 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offering a number of employees equal to that which guarantees work on Sundays, at night. shifts during the normal holiday season.

According to the union, SNS pharmacists went on strike for the first time in October and November last year, and it was an unprecedented strike with more than 90% of members involved.