The Health Minister, Ana Paula Martins, stated on Monday that the situation in emergency services is “better than last year,” while acknowledging that it is “not yet satisfactory.”
“We are better, but we are not well. We are not yet well,” she mentioned during an interview with SIC Notícias.
She elaborated: “Last year, between the 15th, 16th and 17th of August, days when it is usually more difficult to fill emergency shifts, in the Obstetrics area, we had eight emergencies closed and this year we had four emergencies closed.”
The minister noted that the improvement is mainly due to “a coordination effort that the Executive Directorate [of the National Health Service] has been making” and a “very hard and sacrificial effort by the professional teams.”
“We are better because of a hard work by the professional teams to maintain 180 emergency services,” she highlighted.
However, she acknowledged that there is a need “to improve coordination in what is the reorganization of emergencies.”
Regarding the fear of local authorities in the five municipalities served by the Hospital de Vila Franca de Xira over the potential closure of the maternity and the possible definitive closure of the Obstetrics Emergencies at the Arco Ribeirinho Local Health Unit (ULSAR), the minister assured: “We will not close maternities.”
“We will not close maternities that are a complex of services with a very varied typology and that are articulated with primary care,” she said.
Earlier, in an interview with Jornal da Noite on SIC, the minister also indicated that “to be better than we were last year” it is necessary that “teams within the National Health Service (SNS) and doctors who work on a task basis and support emergency shifts” be “overloaded,” especially “during this summer period.”
“It is obvious that we have a very serious problem of human resources, of doctors and nurses. And it is obvious that it will not be resolved in one legislative term,” she stated.
Task Force? Minister emphasizes that Government wants to “ensure fairness”
Regarding the draft law that prohibits the hiring as external service providers of doctors who have left the SNS or new specialists who have not signed a contract with the State, Ana Paula Martins explained that the measure aims to “ensure fairness.”
“We reached about 213 million euros in medical service provision, 42 to 44% done by private companies and the rest by doctors on a personal basis,” she mentioned. “Our aim is not to penalize the doctors. It is to ensure fairness in what we pay per hour to a task-based doctor and to a doctor working in the SNS.”
The minister illustrated that task-based doctors earn between 47 to 100 euros per hour, while SNS teams receive 36 euros per hour.
It should be noted that, according to the Expresso newspaper, which consulted the preliminary version of the draft decree-law aiming to regulate service provisions, the Ministry of Health argues that newly-qualified specialists who do not apply to the SNS or refuse placement will not be able to work on a task basis in the public sector.
The same will apply to doctors who terminate their contract, refuse to work extra hours beyond those required by law, or request early retirement.
