Around 600 doctors have sent an open letter to the minister calling for an agreement in the talks

This Saturday, about 600 doctors sent an open letter to the Minister of Health, in which they stated that they were not prepared to work overtime beyond the legally required hours unless an agreement was reached in negotiations with trade unions.

“The purpose of the letter is to warn the minister that we doctors are vigilant and attentive to everything that happens in terms of negotiations with the unions, and that we have red lines that she already knows about and which are exactly the same as last year,” Helena Terleira of the Doctors in Struggle movement, the promoter of the initiative, told the Lusa news agency.

An internal medicine specialist said that in an open letter signed by 586 doctors and sent at midnight, doctors said they would defend their “legal right not to work more than 150 or 250 hours of overtime” as they do in normal duty or exclusively for emergency services if current negotiations do not lead to a “successful conclusion”.

“We believe that this is essentially the only measure left to us, since unfortunately there has been no progress in negotiations with the trade unions so far,” said Helena Terleira.

The specialist added that until now doctors, “of their own free will, for the reason that they wanted to protect the SNS” and because they believed that the negotiations “would come to a successful conclusion”, spent more than 12 hours directly in the emergency department and more than two emergencies per week.

At the moment, doctors, even if they do not sign a waiver of additional work beyond what is required, are not available for this.

“If we saw a willingness in the ministry to negotiate seriously, people would give more, but people cannot continue to give what they have and what they don’t have, sacrifice their personal lives, sacrifice their families, sacrifice their leisure time for a service that, unfortunately, is not showing any improvement in the short term,” the doctor said.

He also expressed regret that “all” the minister offers doctors is “incentives to work harder.”

“The only thing the minister tells us is: you work 40 hours, but if you want to earn a few more bucks, you will have to work 50, 60 or 70 hours a week. This is a terrible overload in a profession that takes your life into the hands of people,” Helena Terleira emphasized.

In the open letter, the signatories state that they “will apply their statement of unwillingness to work additionally, which will negatively affect the dynamics of medical services, which (…) clearly depend on overtime work by doctors.”

“We understand the complexity and importance of the NHS and acknowledge the efforts to maintain it as it should be. However, the current working conditions have had a negative impact on the mental and physical health and quality of life of all health workers,” the letter said.

Doctors say they are united by “seeking improved conditions” in the profession “that will benefit not only the NHS” but the wider population, and are looking for “a swift response through concrete action.”