The Independent Doctors’ Union (SIM) said on Friday that the government must put an end to the existence of “multiple NHSs” in a country where “everything works well” in the north, while south of Coimbra the situation is “almost tragic”.
“The government must solve the problem of the existence of different social networks. We cannot have everything perfect in the North, everything working well, and then have a situation that I consider almost tragic in the south of Coimbra, in which pregnant women travel hundreds of kilometers a day,” Nuno Rodrigues, secretary general of SIM, told Lusa, referring to the closure of urgent cases in obstetrics and gynecology.
According to the emergency scales published on the SNS portal, at 12:30 this Friday, seven gynecology and obstetrics emergency departments were due to close on Saturday, eight on Sunday, most of them in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, and three in pediatrics.
The union leader believes these issues of unequal access to the NHS, which have several causes, must be addressed.
He cited the “competitiveness of the private sector” as one of the reasons for this situation, with the main groups operating in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo.
“This dynamic, coupled with the shortage of doctors in the services, means that working conditions in the private sector are becoming better, with better pay, while in the NHS, as colleagues leave, there is clearly a shortage of services and poorer working conditions,” he said.
Regarding the shortage of doctors in the SNS, Nuno Rodrigues said that this is also due to the retirement of many specialists.
“This is a long-term trend that is starting to emerge, that is, a large percentage of doctors are over 60, and many are even over 65, and naturally, year after year, there will be more reforms,” he explained.
Nuno Rodrigues said it was “natural that the situation will worsen in the coming years” and that the solution to the problem would involve recruiting new professionals and young professionals from outside the National Health Service.
To do this, he argued that it was necessary to present a medium-term plan lasting at least five years with fixed conditions guaranteeing “some stability” in terms of working conditions and salaries for young doctors.
“No doctor wants to work urgently with very small teams below the minimum level, where obviously the risk of medical error is extremely high,” he said, adding that professionals “avoid these working conditions where they have to do hundreds of overtime hours” in “unsuitable conditions.”
He added that SIM is currently discussing salary increases and career advancement with the government, but said short, medium or long-term measures are also needed to ensure that doctors remain in the SNS and many even return, “but under stable conditions for doctors coming for years.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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