A shocking report has revealed that the Portuguese state paid over €51 million in salaries to just 550 general practitioners in 2012 – that’s almost €93,000 per doctor. And this year, a further 44 “situations of undue functional accumulations” have been detected.
The news, reported by Correio da Manhã newspaper, followed a government audit by IGAS, the health sector activities inspectorate, which showed that “undue accumulations” increased doctors’ salaries seven-fold in 2012.
In a universe of just 150 high-paid doctors, said the newspaper, the state paid out a total of €16.6 million in 2012 – €7 million of which went towards overtime.
As IGAS pointed out, “contrary to what should have happened, the justification that should support payment for working overtime exceeded the (doctors’) salaried income” – “or simply wasn’t clear”. In some cases, paperwork was non-existent or insufficient, IGAS is reported to have said.
Calling the doctors “turbo-médicos” because of the amount of hours and specialities they claim to have worked, Correio da Manhã pointed out that even so, figures for 2012 are better than the year before, thanks to inspections by the likes of IGAS. 2012’s numbers are in fact €8.1 million down on the amounts claimed in 2011.
