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Nurses demand government priority

Nurses demand government priority

Five nursing unions said today that nurses should be a government priority, demanding negotiations to enhance the careers of these health professionals, who feel forgotten by “successive governments”.

On Wednesday, the unions called a five-day strike for the end of April and beginning of May on the mainland and the islands, to demand a pay and career review and the hiring of more professionals.

“This is our way of announcing our discontent, given that just yesterday [Thursday] the Prime Minister, in his speech to the Assembly of the Republic, said that the priority was for other professions,” Carlos Ramalho, president of the Democratic Nurses’ Union of Portugal (Sindepor), told a press conference today.

The press conference in Lisbon was also attended by the presidents of the Nurses’ Union (SE), the Independent Union of Nursing Professionals (SIPE), the Independent Union of All United Nurses (SITEU) and the National Nurses’ Union (SNE).

Despite recognizing progress in negotiations, such as today with the Portuguese Association of Private Hospitalization (APHP), Carlos Ramalho said that the strike notice would be maintained if there were no positive signs.

The leader of the SE, Pedro Costa, pointed out that there are nurses with 20/30 years in the profession who are “completely stagnant in their careers”.

“They earn almost as much as their new colleagues. A nurse takes home a clean salary of just over 900 euros. And it’s not enough just to say that we have to give and recognize the risk of hardship to other professions, it’s important to say that we have to recognize nurses as a risky profession,” he stressed.

He also criticized the government for not yet referring to the emergency health plan promised by the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, during the legislative election campaign on March 10, and which would be presented within the first 60 days of government.

“Sixty days is no longer 60 days (…) and we don’t see the word nurses anywhere,” he observed.

For his part, the president of SIPE, Fernando Mendes Parreira, said that the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, “must have her say”, pointing out that a “conflict” is being created between public and private sector nurses over the counting of length of service.

“Certain institutions are not taking length of service into account. This situation causes a lot of discontent among nurses. This has to be put right,” he said.

For his part, the president of the SNE, Emanuel Boieiro, said that the unions have a “promise of a meeting” with the Ministry of Health, indicating that the APHP has already approached the nurses’ demands.

“These five unions want, on the basis of dialog (…) between the parties, to achieve better conditions for nurses,” he stressed.

The president of SITEU, Gorete Pimentel, emphasized that the unions wanted to raise awareness about the career of nurses.

“The last time our salary scale was changed precariously was in 2008, when there was a career review. Since 2008, the salary scale for nurses has never been changed, never altered. We’ve had more than 15 years of precariousness and lack of pay rises,” he said.

The strike will take place on April 26, 29 and 30 and May 2 and 3 and covers public service institutions and those in the social and private sectors on the mainland and in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, on a regional basis depending on the day.

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