Family doctors regret not being heard by health insurance plan, and coordinator admits his oversight

The Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine (APMGF) this Wednesday expressed regret that it was not heard in the preparation of the health emergency plan, with the coordinator of the document admitting that this was due to an oversight.

“I agree that it is very important for doctors to be heard, I agree that doctors are close to the decision makers and that we can influence them, but the truth is that very little family doctors were listened to when this plan was built. . At APMGF, for example, this was not the case,” said the president of the association.

Nuno Jacinto was speaking during an “online debate” organized by the Order of Physicians (OM) on the health emergency plan approved by the Council of Ministers last week and consisting of 54 urgent, priority and structural measures divided into five axes.

The fact that the association representing family doctors in Portugal has not been heard is a cause for concern, given that the government’s plan has a specific focus on primary health care, he said.

“It is strange that in this field, general and family medicine doctors have not been able to convey their voice to those who deserve it,” laments Nuno Jacinto, for whom this is reflected in the fact that “some measures end up not being feasible” for doctors in this field.

He gave the example of a physician assistant provided for in the plan, emphasizing that “a physician assistant cannot be a colleague in another specialty or who does not have a specialty and who replaces” the family doctor in his duties.

In response, the health emergency plan coordinator acknowledged that the fact that the association was not heard was due to an “omission” but stressed that several people from general and family medicine, including union leaders, had been consulted.

According to Eurico Castro Alves, who was willing to meet with the APMGF, 167 institutions were consulted in Portugal and “under no circumstances should the principle of the importance of general and family medicine be questioned.”

The goal is for every citizen to have a family doctor, said the plan’s coordinator, for whom general and family medicine is currently a “very serious problem” due to a “huge shortage of doctors” in the next three years.

“We do not have enough doctors specializing in general and family medicine to achieve the government’s goal of recruiting doctors who meet all the needs of the country. We don’t have that now, but we will make great efforts” in a number of areas, he assured Eurico Castro Alves.

Regarding the figure of the paramedic, the plan coordinator explained that the principle is “a doctor for those who need it,” through a separate medical consultation for a given day and for a given patient who “does not yet have a general medical consultation.” a medical network and family that I can reach.”

“The physician assistant is an organization that must be abolished as soon as we have a family doctor for every Portuguese,” assured Eurico Castro Alves, admitting that it is nevertheless “a necessity at the moment.”

In his first speech, Eurico Castro Alves also mentioned that “doctors have been pushed out of the decision-making process over the past 20 years,” despite the fact that they “know the reality, the problems and the solutions better than anyone.”

“In terms of presence,” many doctors are unavailable, acknowledged the plan coordinator, for whom “doctors cannot not be present in the decision-making centers.”

“The main reason I agreed to develop and coordinate this work was to use what I advocate,” he emphasized.

The President welcomed the fact that the OM was heard several times in the preparation of the health plan, which he considered “very well structured”, but warned that this set of measures cannot be static and must be able to adapt to changes. . user needs.

However, the plan “has other aspects of interrogation”, says Carlos Cortes, who has already asked the Minister of Health to hold a meeting to “clarify some points” included in this strategy presented by the Portuguese government.