
The new 18-month period provides the necessary assurance for residents to apply for open competitions, emphasized the president of the Order of Pharmacists (OF) following the Diário da República’s publication of changes to the career regime.
This measure targets pharmacists completing the pharmacy residency program, a four-year specialization in clinical analysis, hospital pharmacy, and human genetics conducted in National Health Service (SNS) units and regional health services in the Azores and Madeira.
According to the order’s data, over 300 resident pharmacists are currently spread across the country, specializing in these three fields.
“The country and the SNS cannot invest in specialist training only to not capitalize on that investment. It stands to reason that trained specialists should address the chronic shortage of pharmacists in the SNS,” stated the president Helder Mota Filipe.
In a statement, Mota Filipe further explained that this resolves a problem identified by the order and resident pharmacists since the residency’s inception, allowing SNS health units to plan and distribute human resources more efficiently.
This is a component of the decree-law recently endorsed by the President of the Republic, which modified the integrated pharmaceutical career regime within the SNS, including a review of pay scales that had not been adjusted since 1999.
The decree-law acknowledges that newly specialized pharmacists must apply for a competition to be recruited. It stipulates that the contract under the pharmacy residency can extend up to 18 months, entitling the resident pharmacist to be paid as an assistant from the date of the final classification list’s approval.
This legislative change follows an agreement reached in January between the Ministry of Health and the National Pharmacists’ Union after months of negotiations.