With civil service unions on a crash course with the government over salaries – and Brussels already sounding warning bells over any teacher pay adjustments – 52 doctors and heads of departments have resigned en-masse at Gaia Hospital.
Said senior clinical director José Pedro da Silva: “We are not asking for better salaries. We are appealing for better conditions for patients”.
The situation was highlighted in March this year, after which negotiations between the hospital’s administration and doctors have been ongoing.
But on Wednesday the time improvements were taking caused everything to snap.
“Gaia is burning!” Came the appeal, explaining that “a year ago we all witnessed a national tragedy: Pedrógão Grande burned. And money appeared to make good even houses that hadn’t been damaged (click here) The Ministry (of Health) has to understand that Gaia is burning, although the flames are different…”
“Conditions without any form of dignity, wards with holes in the floors and mould on the walls, lack of staff, lack of resources, delays in treatment (particularly for cancer patients), patients made to stay on waiting lists for more than six months, overcrowded wards with the use of only one small bathroom…” The list of complaints goes on for a hospital that José Pedro da Silva describes as “partially destroyed and functioning badly”.
Yet after the dismal press conference, the doctors agreed that they would turn up for work today so as not to leave patients in the lurch.
It’s a question now of whether the health ministry will take any notice of their stand, or if all the heroic soundbites were just a 30-minute wonder.
Elsewhere, the situation with civil service unions is dire.
The government is due to meet with FESAP, STE and Frente Comum tomorrow (Friday), and all three have warned that if their members’ salary demands for 2019 are not accepted, they will be staging various forms of strike action.
In its 8th post-adjustment period report, Brussels too has warned that despite Portugal’s economy appearing “robust”, it must take care not to tip expenditure too far the wrong way by conceding to the demands of teachers who were assured salaries would be ‘put right’ after over nine years and four months with pay and career-progression freezes.
