The position of the trade union federation comes in the wake of an open letter from professionals of the community support palliative care teams (ECSCP), who provide home care to patients in advanced stages of illness, sent to Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and Health Minister Ana Paula Martins.
The document highlights that there has been a departure of doctors and nurses from these teams “primarily due to working conditions that are inferior to those of other primary health care units.”
The open letter states that this occurs because ECSCP have not yet been recognized as Functional Units, which prevents contractual agreements and the allocation of incentives to the professionals involved.
“The problem goes beyond remuneration, affecting the recognition and stability of these professionals,” the document’s signatories emphasize, noting that in 2024, the Government took initiatives to value and incentivize health professionals, but without including the ECSCP.
As a result, there is currently a “very significant pay asymmetry” between professionals in these teams and their colleagues in Family Health Units, the open letter further laments.
In a statement, Fnam considered the situation “serious,” given that the teams remain unrecognized as functional units of primary health care, “despite more than a decade of proven success and successive parliamentary recommendations.”
“This omission leads to undignified working conditions and inequalities compared to other units of the National Health Service,” the union structure highlighted, pointing out that the result has been the “flight of doctors and other professionals from these teams, emptied by a lack of professional valuation and absence of stability.”
To reverse this situation, Fnam demanded the immediate recognition of ECSCP as functional units of primary health care, with their own contractual agreements, urgent reinforcement of human and material resources, professional appreciation, career progression for all team members, and full compliance with the Resolution of the Assembly of the Republic that recommended the Government to strengthen the response in palliative care.
