The Ordem dos Médicos (OM) has expressed concern about the country’s response to the care of pregnant women, particularly in emergency services and primary healthcare, especially in areas with a shortage of healthcare professionals.
The OM had submitted a “solid and responsible proposal to strengthen pregnancy monitoring in primary healthcare” to the Ministry of Health a week ago, yet no response has been received.
Instead, plans are underway to announce an “unstructured project” for low-risk pregnancy monitoring and surveillance, which the OM argues contradicts essential operational principles of SNS teams, overlooks key technical recommendations, and fails to reflect any necessary reform principles in this area.
The OM emphasizes that its proposal strictly respects the competencies of each profession and centers family doctors within multidisciplinary teams to ensure quality care and the safety of pregnant women.
To advance any model securely, the OM advocated for the prior development of clinical protocols and the establishment of a technical oversight committee.
The document also stresses the need to avoid any form of usurpation of family doctors’ responsibilities, vital for safeguarding care for pregnant women and children.
“We regret that the Ministry of Health has not valued the contribution of the Ordem dos Médicos and is disregarding the participation of doctors, especially family doctors, in the care pathway of pregnant women,” said the OM’s president in the statement.
Carlos Cortes argues that “each profession has essential competencies,” but asserts that “in this process, the role of the doctor is absolutely central and irreplaceable.”
“There can be no misunderstandings,” emphasizes the president, for whom “working in a team does not mean replacing some professionals with others.”
“This is a profoundly wrong path, in which the Ordem dos Médicos will not participate,” he warns.
For Carlos Cortes, “it is imperative” to preserve the specific competencies of each profession in an area “as sensitive and demanding as pregnancy monitoring.”
“Avoiding confusion and shortcuts is crucial to ensuring quality and safety for pregnant women, something that is not guaranteed under the announced conditions,” he further warned.
The president’s alert comes on the day when Health Minister Ana Paula Martins meets with specialist maternal and obstetric health nurses at Hospital Garcia de Orta in Almada to discuss the low-risk pregnancy monitoring project in primary care.
According to the Ministry of Health, the low-risk pregnancy monitoring project by specialist nurses will begin in the health centers of the Setúbal Peninsula, targeting low-risk pregnant women without a family doctor.
The OM reiterates that it has recently alerted the Ministry of Health to the urgent need to attract more specialist doctors, a critical condition for addressing the structural deficiencies affecting the SNS.
It has also presented the Ministry of Health with a concrete plan to attract and retain doctors in the SNS, including in primary healthcare and maternal health areas.
The OM reaffirms its full availability to collaborate in developing solutions that strengthen the SNS’s response and protect the care of pregnant women in Portugal.
