Numbers without family doctors rose by one million over last five years
A new government plan to tackle the increasing problem of Portuguese people without ‘family doctors’ in the SNS public health service involves private and social sectors. It will start being rolled out in 20 Family Health Units in Lisbon/ Vale do Tejo, the Algarve and Leiria, all three areas where the shortage of family doctors is most acute.
The plan, announced yesterday by minister of health Ana Paula Martins, will be approved in today’s Council of Minister.
The minister announced the change as she gave her ‘situation report’ on the progress of the ‘health emergency plan’ put into action to try and wrestle the ailing SNS service ‘back from the brink’.
The new style Family Health Units will be differentiated from others by being classified as ‘model C’ – a model that the minister stressed has always been provided for within the SNS statutes, but never implemented.
The way forwards will involve 10 of these model C units opening in Lisbon/ Vale do Tejo, five in the Algarve and five in Leiria.
This will be seen as ‘an experimental phase’, to be taken to other areas lacking family doctors once it has been tried and tested.
With regard to private sector involvement, Ana Paula Martins said that groups of health professionals can join together to apply for these units, which allow for greater “flexibility in managing the list of users, based on criteria of greater efficiency of human resources”.
In addition, hopes are that they will increase “response capacity in regions lacking (family doctors)”.
These new units will have “complete management autonomy” based on care coverage criteria, she added.
Also speaking during yesterday’s announcement was secretary of state for health Christina Vaz Tomé who explained that the focus of these new units will be to try and attract recently qualified doctors.
With 1.6 million Portuguese without a family doctor (the numbers grew by one million under PS Socialists), Vaz Tomé said the government’s first objective is to give “more than 200,000” a family doctor by the end of this year.
According to early reports, “the opposition has criticised the opening of Family Health Units to the private sector”. The Association of Family Health Units has also come out in criticism, suggesting this is another “immensely dangerous” attempt to privatise primary health care.
Source material: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã/ Rádio Renascença
