Carlos Cortes says there is no plan for the summer “that can withstand what is happening on social media.”

The President of the Order of Doctors said this Saturday that “there is no plan for the summer (…) that can support what is happening on social networks. [Serviço Nacional de Saúde]”, stressing that “interventions” are necessary.

These measures should make the SNS “more attractive” so that “it has the doctors it needs, which it currently does not have,” Carlos Cortes told reporters after the inauguration ceremony of the new government of the Order of Dentists at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon.

This is because, as he noted, the social media problem poses a “big challenge” in attracting human resources.

“There are difficulties in the summer, we already know that they exist. They exist, strangely enough, as everyone knows, every year, and not a single year is there a solution. It seems that governments are always caught off guard by summer, winter…”, he lamented.

“The strategic plans to be drawn up by the Ministry of Health must be published well in advance of the seasonal period to which they relate. (…) Strategic plan [para o verão] The Ministry of Health should have been ready since January of this year, but it was not,” the president noted.

Carlos Cortes added that the contingency plan of the General Directorate of Health is still in place, “which was presented on time,” as well as that of the hospitals, many of which, “unfortunately,” presented theirs “very late.”

Regarding the situation recorded this weekend in the Algarve, where there were problems in the emergency department, the president admitted that the contingency plan that centralizes resources in the Faro hospital is not a “suitable solution” but a “possible solution.”

Carlos Cortes insisted that the solution involves recruiting doctors to the National Health Service, especially in the most needed specialties, such as pediatrics and gynecology-obstetrics.

“There is no plan that could deal with this situation, and there is no country in the world that could provide an adequate response (…) in the midst of this shortage (…) of human resources, especially medical personnel,” he said.

Regarding the goal of expanding family doctor coverage within a year, the president considered that “this is a forecast that may be difficult to achieve,” but possible “if the government commits itself” to solving the “frightening figure of 600 thousand million Portuguese” who do not have this service.

Regarding the strike called by the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) on Friday, the President stressed that “these are union negotiations on labour issues”, acknowledging that there is “a set of (…) serious problems in terms of the working conditions of doctors, in terms of wages, which obviously need to be resolved quickly. They already existed in the previous government, were transferred to this government and obviously deserve attention from the Ministry of Health”.

Understanding the role of trade unions, Carlos Cortes recalled that “there are already restrictions” in the provision of health services, even doctors’ strikes, and returned to the emphasis on the “lack of working conditions” in the SNS.

“Reformulating the medical career, adequate working conditions, conditions for training doctors, the issue of decent pay – all these are very important aspects that obviously need to be considered by this Ministry of Health,” he noted.

Commenting on relations with the current government (PSD-CDS/PP), which has been in power for three months, Carlos Cortes said there are “no communication problems” with the Ministry of Health and that the file is being examined.

“We are starting to work on them and I hope that quickly – because everything is urgent in the health sector – they can move forward and action can be taken,” he said.