Portugal needs between 1,636 and 3,273 more occupational physicians, estimates the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), which warns that the number of clinicians practicing is “insufficient to ensure the health surveillance of the employed population”.
The estimate of the country’s needs “clearly shows that there is an insufficient number of occupational physicians to ensure the health surveillance of the employed population, which could be aggravated by the ageing of this professional group in the short term and by the reduced number of vacancies for occupational medicine internships,” warns the DGS.
The new data is part of the Occupational Health Indicators System (SIOC), created as part of the national program in this area, presented today in Lisbon.
According to the document, the estimated number of occupational doctors in Portugal rose from 1,300 in 2014 to 1,414 in 2016, the peak year for that period, but has since fallen to 1,359 in 2022.
Considering that the employed population in 2022 was 4,908,700 and that it was not possible to quantify the number of high-risk workers in the employed population, the DGS opted to estimate the needs regarding the number of occupational doctors.
In the estimate by employed population, the document reveals a “need for between 1,636 and 3,273 occupational physicians, making it clear that there are far fewer real occupational physicians than the country needs”.
The DGS recognizes that some doctors practice Occupational Medicine part-time, having another specialty in which “they have greater contractual stability and the possibility of career development, which makes the calculations difficult”.
In view of the estimated needs, the directorate-general considers it “crucial for the pursuit of the national Occupational Health policy to consider all doctors who can legally practice” Occupational Medicine.
This should include doctors who specialize in occupational medicine, doctors who are temporarily authorized to practice by the DGS, doctors who graduated in occupational medicine before the year 2000 and doctors who are technically qualified to practice occupational medicine, says the document.
“There is an urgent need to outline a new model for the provision of occupational health services that takes into account this reduced number of occupational doctors,” the DGS also warns, stressing that good practice must be safeguarded, as well as the need to monitor, promote and protect the health of all workers without exception, with particular attention to the most vulnerable and those in situations of greater occupational risk.
“All workers have the right to occupational health services to protect their health throughout their working lives. The existence of a sufficient number of occupational doctors is essential if this right is to be guaranteed to the entire working population,” the directorate-general emphasizes.
The number of health examinations fell between 2010 (1,837,060) and 2013 (1,592,010), and then increased steadily until 2019, when the peak figure of 1,919,646 examinations was reached.
