The National Association of Family Health Services (USF-AN) said this Monday that the amount the state pays – 11.5 million euros annually – for each Covid-19 vaccine in community pharmacies will be used to hire 639 nurses.
The state pays community pharmacies 2.5 euros for each vaccine administered.
“The €2.5 fee for each Covid-19 vaccine supplied by community pharmacies is fair, similar to what is paid for each flu vaccine (€11.5 million in total, which everyone will obviously have to pay) year,” confirmed as fixed costs), we cannot help but wonder why this amount should not be used for investment in the SNS (National Health Service), especially in primary health care,” the USF-AN statement indicated.
According to the organization, which is assessing the operating model of the seasonal vaccination campaign in the fall-winter of 2023-2024. against flu and Covid-19 in community pharmacies, the cost of more than €11 million could be “used to recruit and pay 639 nurses”. .
“This option [contratar enfermeiros], in addition to guaranteeing seasonal vaccinations, it also guaranteed qualified medical care to approximately 1 million users who do not have a family nurse. This nursing care can, for example, be used to improve the accessibility of the approach to treating acute illnesses,” he states.
While advocating that the entire National Vaccination Program and therefore any seasonal vaccination campaign should focus on primary health care, USF-AN reminds that “vaccination as an essential service should not be privatized” but “increasingly optimized by the SNS “
“We cannot make the mistake of investing in a disintegrated healthcare system that loses the value of the global and cohesive care provided by family health teams,” he states.
USF-AN also states that “the transfer of social media funding to private organizations leads to the privatization of successful social networking services,” requiring that priority be given to “users aged 80 and older, then those 70 and older, and only then users aged 60 and older.”
The association also recalls that for the fourth year in a row, Portugal “reached and exceeded” the target set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for vaccination coverage among people over 65 years of age.
“(…) At the start of the vaccination campaign, on September 29, 2023, only 17% of the total number of vaccines available in Portugal was allocated to health centers,” he notes.
However, according to USF-AN, “in one month and 20 days, health centers, for example, have already administered 538,868 influenza vaccines, representing 30% of the total number of vaccines administered in Portugal, significantly higher than the initial 17%.” . predicted.”
“Underscoring these results, on the same day last year (2022), health centers had already administered approximately 8.5% more flu vaccines to both the 70 to 79 age group and the 80+ age group . compared to this year, when pharmacies were responsible for vaccinating these age groups,” he says.
When it comes to Covid-19 vaccinations, “the difference is even more pronounced.”
“In 2022, an additional 22% of the population aged 70-79 and 16.5% of the population aged 80 and over were vaccinated. Until this year, this service has always been above average,” he emphasizes.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.