The Portuguese Medical Association (OM) warned today that the reform of the Local Health Units (ULS) “puts at risk” the training of internal doctors, particularly in general and family medicine and public health.
According to the OM, “the way in which the competences of the Regional Health Administrations (ARS) are being transferred to the ULS has led to an organizational vacuum in the structures of the medical internship, with the greatest impact on general and family medicine and public health.”
“This is a serious situation that requires an immediate solution, as it puts the training of these intern doctors at risk, in some of the specialties with the greatest needs in the country,” warns the OM’s president, Carlos Cortes, quoted in a statement, arguing that “the transfer of competencies from the ARS to the ULS was poorly done, poorly prepared and carried out in an uncoordinated manner”.
According to the Portuguese Medical Association, the seven regional internship coordinators should be preserved, “with the current functional profile and above the ULS”, since they are responsible for ensuring “the application of the training programs, in conjunction with the other bodies of the medical internship”.
The OM advocates that the directors of local general and family medicine and public health internships “continue to be appointed at the proposal of the internship coordinators, as is currently the case”.
He also revealed that he was “willing to collaborate with the authorities and the internship bodies to prevent the internship of these specialties from being dismantled at a time when there is a high shortage” of family and public health doctors.
