“Approximately 250 newly graduated specialist doctors completed their medical residency in October and are still, as of December, without any placement in the National Health Service (SNS), due to a delay in the opening of the hiring competition, which legally expired two days ago,” states FNAM in a statement sent today to the press.
The delay was reported on Saturday by the Independent Doctors’ Union (SIM) and confirmed today by FNAM, which criticizes the situation, considering it to have “direct consequences on patient safety and access to healthcare.”
FNAM notes that among these professionals are “critical specialties for the SNS,” including over 50 General and Family Medicine doctors, over 30 Internal Medicine doctors, 16 Obstetrics doctors, 12 Psychiatry doctors, and 11 Pediatrics doctors.
The federation emphasizes that these professionals could alleviate cases of closed emergency services and reduce waiting times in emergencies, which, in some hospitals, exceed 17 hours.
For FNAM, this delay in the competition “has no technical or administrative justification,” and represents “a serious failure in planning, management, and political responsibility, attributable to the Ministry of Health, under the leadership of Ana Paula Martins.”
Additionally, it warns that “the country risks wasting highly qualified doctors, trained over more than a decade with public investment, at a time when the SNS faces one of the greatest human resource crises in its history.”
The federation also fears that this delay may be seen by young specialists as an indication that while the State does train doctors and publicly acknowledges their scarcity, it subsequently “refuses to comply with legislation and the duty to hire them promptly.”
As a result: “The move to the private sector or abroad, deliberately worsening the weakening of the SNS,” accuses the federation, which estimates that, on average, four doctors “leave the SNS every day.”
“Every day of delay represents doctors that the SNS loses and healthcare that ceases to be provided to the population. FNAM demands that the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, immediately assume political responsibility for this situation and comply with the law by urgently opening the competition for hiring specialist doctors,” it stated.
