“Orthopedics is not a new concern. It has been our concern since last year, especially after summer, when six doctors, six specialists, left”, stated Carlos Martins to journalists after meeting with the president of the Medical Association (OM), Carlos Cortes, at the hospital unit in Lisbon.
The president of the Santa Maria local health unit (ULS) administration noted that the current director, who began his role in January, has made “a great effort” with the doctors “to reorganize the service.”
“We have not found the solutions we wanted, particularly attracting new doctors. We were only able to attract one. We are now signing three more contracts (…),” he indicated, recalling that in the first semester, the hospital attracted the “minimum limit” of eight required clinicians.
The official mentioned that more than the lack of human resources, a service reorganization is underway.
“This was what was discussed with the service director when he submitted his resignation letter. He did not resign but submitted a resignation letter stating he lacks the conditions, and the plan he implemented is not working. In contrast to this position, we presented six measures that we asked the service director to analyze with the doctors,” he emphasized.
Among the measures presented, Carlos Martins highlighted the need to achieve “some decompression” to resume normal activity, increase additional production to recover the waiting list, and address the need to attract more doctors.
“The Director of Orthopedics submitted his resignation but immediately expressed his willingness to continue [in the role] until a replacement is found or to reverse his decision if conditions change,” he added.
In statements to Lusa, the president of the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam), Joana Bordalo e Sá, described the resignation of the Director of Orthopedics at Santa Maria, Paulo Almeida, as “another alert cry” for the exhaustion of NHS professionals.
Joana Bordalo e Sá pointed out that this decision followed the presentation of excuses for overtime by 12 orthopedic doctors from the same hospital.
The president of the OM commented that the primary reason for the director’s resignation in Orthopedics is related to a “lack of medical resources to ensure emergency services and normal operations.”
Carlos Cortes highlighted today the inability of all ULS to attract specialists.
“As long as the NHS is not attractive and lacks suitable conditions for work, training, career valuation, and remuneration, this situation will increasingly worsen,” he stated.
The president added that the Orthopedics service at ULS Santa Maria “should have eight more medical specialists to provide an adequate response,” considering the current situation as “very serious.”
“Santa Maria Hospital is a major hospital that must have maximum response capacity in all areas, especially specialized areas and emergency response,” he noted.
[Updated at 3:50 PM]
