Doctors “still make an effort” despite unique difficulties faced in Algarve
Carlos Cortes, head of the Portuguese Medical Association (Ordem dos Médicos), has painted a grim picture of the Algarve’s public hospitals, stating that they face “difficulties that no other hospital in the country faces.”
So he told journalists after a visit to Faro Hospital this Thursday which saw him visiting the hospital’s services and meeting up with doctors.
“Doctors need to be provided working conditions. This was very evident here: doctors complaining that they don’t even have minimal teams to be able to do their job,” Cortes said.
“We don’t want the National Health Service (SNS) to be a second-rate service, forcing professionals to work without adequate conditions. The Algarve has very particular situations that are different from other hospitals. What I ask the Ministry of Health and its executive committee is not to look at the country as if it were a single reality, as they have been doing, but to know how to look at the differences,” he said.
“The Algarve has difficulties like other hospitals. But it has special difficulties that no other hospital in the country has. The Ministry of Health needs to spend some time in this region of the country which needs better and more health conditions,” the head of the association told reporters.
Even with all the issues they face, Carlos Cortes stressed that doctors “still make an effort” to provide decent health care to patients.
Asked to leave a message for those waiting on stretchers in the corridors of Faro Hospital, he said: “this is a situation that hurts us all. I am a doctor with a strong humanistic sense, of helping others and those in need. I finished my intervention this morning speaking about what is most important for doctors: to be able to have the capacity to treat their patients. This situation, which is not exclusive to this A&E, is becoming somewhat commonplace. I strongly reject this thought, which is a thought that many politicians have” when they say “this is normal to happen.”
Cortes insisted: “No, it is not normal for this to happen. It is not normal for patients to wait 12 or 24 hours in an emergency room. It is not normal for them to wait months or several years to have surgery. What would be normal is for the country to be equipped to provide an adequate and immediate response to patients,” he emphasised.
“All of us, healthcare professionals, doctors, and patients, must know how to fight for a more efficient, responsive, and humanised SNS,” the president of the medical association stated.
Today (February 15) at 7.30pm, Cortes is due to take part in the reception of the Algarve’s medical interns, while tomorrow (February 16) he is due to visit Portimão Hospital at 10am, followed by a meeting with doctors at Lagos Hospital at 2pm.
