Health minister cites proximity of parliamentary elections
Health minister Manuel Pizarro has thrown a curved ball into the tortuous round of negotiations with doctors’ syndicates that has been dragging on for over a year and a half.
The fact that the country goes to the polls in March means “it doesn’t make sense” to continue negotiations.
The truth is that come January, the ‘strike’ over statutory overtime will no longer have any effect, as the clock starts again on 150-hours of mandatory overtime, meaning doctors will have to work extra hours (whether they like it or not), and the ‘chaos’ in hospitals will likely reduce somewhat.
But how this sits with syndicates FNAM and SIM which have locked horns with the government for the last 19 months to reach what they feel is a ‘fair deal’ for the nation’s overworked public health system doctors is yet to be shown.
Certainly, Carlos Cortes, head of the Portuguese Medical Association (Ordem dos Médicos), believes the situation within the State health service is much too critical to be left waiting.
He said only three days ago: “The government cannot abdicate its responsibility (…) the country cannot wait (…) it is urgent that the problems of the SNS are solved now.”
Manuel Pizarro’s reasons for pulling the plug on talks came at the end of the inauguration of the High Resolution Diagnostic and Therapeutic Complementary Means Centre at Archbishop João Crisóstomo Hospital (HAJC) in Cantanhede today.
“We believe that, at the moment, with early elections scheduled for March, it makes little sense for the current government to make a commitment that could then create more difficulties for the State health service in the future,” he said.
The decision comes after reports yesterday suggested negotiations would resume next Tuesday.
WHAT IS THIS DISPUTE ABOUT?
In a nutshell, syndicates are calling for a 30% increase in base salaries, citing at least a decade in which the value of their salaries has declined. They are open to the increase being phased in slowly – requesting 15% in 2024.
The government however has come up with a plan in which it will give doctors pay rises commensurate with their ‘dedication’ to the SNS health service. A regime of ‘full dedication’ being the way in which doctors will be offered the highest increases: syndicates stress the plan would simply leave doctors even more overworked than they are now.
