The Ministry of Health will open more than 900 vacancies for family doctors

The Ministry of Health will open more than 900 vacancies for family doctors, and some groups of medical centers will increase remuneration by about 40% to attract specialists, the Minister of Health said.

In an interview published this Friday in the newspaper PublicManuel Pizarro says that the most important structural measure to address the shortage of family doctors is to improve the skills of these professionals, 507 of whom started training in January.

In addition to this measure, the need to expand family health facilities is emphasized. [USF]especially with performance-related rewards – USF Model B.

According to him, the competition should open in April, and 900 vacancies will cover “all places in the country where there is not enough family doctor.”

To get family doctors involved in the National Health Service (SNS), especially in places where they are most needed, Pizarro points to two additional novelties: jobs for the needy with about 40% higher remuneration for groups of medical centers (ACES) only . where more than 25% of users do not have a family doctor and a new model that implies a doctor’s commitment to mobility.

As he explains, in this model, still limited in number – only 20 vacancies to see how it works – young doctors can compete for a vacancy in ACES in the North, but with the obligation to be mobile until January 1, 2026. poor group in Lisbon and Tagus valley.

He recalls that, “despite everything”, the SNA manages to attract 60 to 70% of the doctors it trains, and cites as an example a competition open this year to those who graduated from the specialty “General and Family Medicine” in the second last year’s season (108 finished), in which 137 people were recruited.

Asked about the possibility of hospitals hiring specialists directly, he says that the leadership of caregiving is to “bring back to SNS what has existed for decades, that is, hiring through institutional tenders.”

However, he admits: “This will still not be possible in the first half of 2023 because it requires a number of legal changes that we have not been able to prepare at this time and because it also includes negotiations with unions.”

Thus, he says that a decree-law will be used that allows the direct recruitment by EPE and ULS hospitals (local medical units) of “the vast majority of newly graduated medical specialists”, noting that “most of the specialties are associated with the emergency service” . “. The national tender will only be for specialties that are not related to these services.

He speaks of complete dedication that he will start with doctors and specialists who are members of the UFS, whose remuneration model is related to performance, in centers of integrated responsibility. [nos hospitais]in teams designed for emergencies and then “progressively expanded”.

In midwifery, he says training has been expanded, with 54 doctors enrolled in internships in January — “the highest number since 2011” — and that the government is working with the Medical Association to create conditions for extending the internship.

Asked about the rotation of maternity hospitals and whether it will remain so and for how long, Manuel Pizarro said that a plan will be drawn up for the summer season, reproducing what has happened so far.