Order of Physicians points to new medical careers, ULS reform and emergencies as priorities

Improving the ability to attract and retain doctors into the public service, particularly through new medical careers, and evaluating the community health unit model were among the priorities presented by the Medical Association to the new health minister.

At the first meeting with Ana Paula Martins, the Medical Association (OM) presented a document outlining six priority measures for 60 days, including the creation of a new medical career, which would apply to all doctors from training.

Leaving the meeting, the president of the Order of Doctors, Carlos Cortes, told reporters that the main purpose of the proposals was to “improve the ability to attract and retain the National Health Service.”

“In the coming weeks we will send a package of documents on the issues listed here,” the president said, adding that Health Minister Ana Paula Martins has asked OM to submit a proposal for a new health center within a month. careers, “namely in the teaching, research and working conditions of doctors in the National Health Service.”

Another thing that Carlos Cortes considered a priority was a “thorough evaluation” of the community health service (ULS) model, explaining that OM already has a commission preparing a report with this evaluation, which it plans to present at the end of May. .

“We have informed the Minister of Health about the commission established by the Order of Doctors in January this year to monitor ULS, which already has a preliminary report and will submit it to the Ministry of Health and Health in May. Executive Council of the SNA,” he said.

In addition to these two measures, Carlos Cortes also said that the MM had considered a “package of measures” (which he did not want to specify) to improve emergency response.

“I talk about the package here because at the moment we have a number of difficulties in primary health care: 1,700,000 Portuguese who do not have access to a family doctor are on a waiting list for surgery, where patients wait for years for surgery, especially , for example, in the field of oncology, which are absolutely emergency operations,” he said.

Carlos Cortes also highlighted the difficulties in solving the problem of access to first specialized consultations, additional diagnostic tools and maternity hospitals.

“We know that the Born Safe plan is not working, and therefore we must have an alternative model,” the president explained, adding: “This is all being assessed by the Medical Association in order to then present specific measures to solve the problem.” urgency, in which urgency (…) is mainly directed towards urgent and emerging matters.”

The person in charge said the meeting went “extremely well” and that the guardianship authorities were open and spoke “very frankly.”

“There are a set of proposals that were immediately adopted, others must be analyzed, as usual, by the Ministry of Health, which has pledged to submit its response regarding the measures within 10 days to two weeks. contained in these three pages of the document that we provided,” he said.

When asked about wage issues, he said they were union issues, but said the issue of “decent remuneration” was on the table today.

“Doctors have a high degree of differentiation, they have a very large responsibility in the healthcare system and, obviously, in matters of wages this differentiation and this responsibility must be observed. We also talked about this (…), but the development of these issues should be done by those who compete: medical unions,” he said.

He also said the measures unveiled today by the OM have “virtually no financial impact”: “Many of them will even help reduce the financial impact that currently exists on the NHS.”