The Board of Directors of the Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca Hospital (HFF), in Amadora, said yesterday, through a statement, that the “unavailability” by the doctors does not jeopardize the “unpostponable health care” to users.
“The provision of health care that can no longer be postponed to the population will not be at risk. The direction of the General Surgery service is reprogramming the schedules given the unavailability manifested by the dispensations presented,” says the administration.
In a press release sent to the Lusa news agency, the board of directors assumes that “eventual flaws in the scales will be guaranteed by hiring service providers, and always working in a network” with other hospitals.
That is, the document continues, working “with the other Lisbon and Tagus Valley institutions of the National Health Service, in close articulation with the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service.
The HFF doctors’ unavailability, clarifies the document, comes in the wake of “disputes” between health professionals that led to “two complaints [in late 2022] of alleged malpractice in its general surgery service.
The board of directors of the HFF admits that it developed, from the first moment, “all steps” to be “fully clarified and determined responsibilities in a transparent, appropriate and fair way” regarding the issues raised by the “complaints made by two surgeons of the institution.
“The reputation and good name of the institution’s professionals demanded it, given the suspicion raised in the public square, with a tone of social alarmism. This suspicion turned out to be unfounded after an inquiry process,” he adds.
The process, continues the document, was requested by the board of directors and was subject to “expert analysis by the College of Specialty of General Surgery of the Order of Physicians.
In this regard, “disciplinary proceedings were instituted against the two surgeons of the institution responsible for the complaints, which resulted in their suspension for a period of three months.”
“Given the possible return of these two surgeons, requests for exemption from overtime work have been submitted by some HFF surgeons,” explains the board of directors, which is chaired by Joana Chêdas.
In this sense, the administration says that it maintains “an attitude of dialogue and consultation” with these specialists, “in close coordination between the Department’s Management and the Medical Association, with a view to overcoming the relational impasse that opposes this group of surgeons and their colleagues who made unfounded accusations.
“The high sense of responsibility demonstrated by the institution will be maintained in the management of this dispute, as required by the reputation built over 28 years and the need to respond to a community of more than 550,000 users,” the statement said.