“This will allow something fantastic. Professionals working in emergency and urgent care in Portugal will be able to do so within the Schengen area without any issues, as programs and specialties are recognized,” stated Nuno Catorze.
The doctor from the College of Emergency and Urgent Medicine of the OM spoke to Lusa after the government approved a new training program aimed at equipping doctors for safer and more effective responses.
The establishment of the Emergency and Urgent Medicine specialty, approved by the Assembly of Representatives of the OM in September of last year, is a key measure of the Emergency and Health Transformation Plan and comes into effect on Tuesday.
According to Nuno Catorze, the new Emergency and Urgent Medicine specialty will enable mutual recognition of skills among European countries, facilitating the mobility of professionals and the benefit of international technical knowledge.
“Unlike what happens today, we have specialists from Belgium or the Netherlands whose specialties are not recognized in Portugal,” said Catorze, a member of the forming committee.
With the new specialty, Portugal will also “be able to absorb” experienced doctors in both pre-hospital and hospital settings, who were previously excluded due to a lack of formal recognition.
“This is a valuable addition to the system, especially the Portuguese system,” he added.
Nuno Catorze emphasized that this specialty does not aim to replace other hospital areas but to complement them, with doctors dedicated to urgent and emergent patients, enabling comprehensive action — pre-hospital, hospital, and post-hospital — with skills in disaster scenarios, forensic medicine, and public health.
The approved training plan covers 22 clinical areas, including cardiopulmonary arrest, trauma, severe infections, poisonings, psychiatry, obstetrics, and exposure to external factors.
The training also includes a five-year plan, featuring an initial course, supervised internships, and care activities in emergency settings, including a theoretical-practical course in the first month, under the responsibility of the placement service with technical support from the OM Specialty College.
The program also plans for an internship at the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM), lasting two months, focusing on pre-hospital training, including the Emergency Medical and Resuscitation Vehicle (VMER), Urgent Patient Guidance Centers (CODU), and air transport.
The new Emergency and Urgent Medicine specialty has 480 approved candidates from a pool of about 1,800 validated applications, according to the latest data from the OM.
