Federation president balks at prospect of “meaningless negotiations”
FNAM, Portugal’s federation of doctors, is digging in its heels, refusing to take part in ‘meaningless negotiations’ with the government, and continuing to accuse the ministry of health of “launching chaos” in the SNS State health system (which has suffered from chaos for years…)
Federation president Joana Bordalo e Sá focuses on what she maintains is the continued lack of ‘financial availability’ to attract more doctors into the public health service, even though (she says) FNAM has given the government ‘solutions’ on how to achieve this.
What she wants, she explains, are “serious negotiations, not window-dressing”, which she suspects is what the government is offering.
Bordalo e Sá was talking to Lusa after a meeting with Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda) coordinator Mariana Mortágua, in Porto.
This explains very clearly where FNAM is coming from. SIM, for example, the ‘other doctors syndicate’, which in times of the last PS Socialist governments, stood beside FNAM in negotiations, is currently less at loggerheads with the new executive, and entering negotiations on pay and conditions in December.
FNAM is definitely more ‘militant’ – and now has the backing of parties like the Left Bloc for the strike called for Septemeber 24 and 25.
Bordalo e Sá explains the strike is aimed at improving doctors’ pay and working conditions so that the SNS “is more attractive” (to qualified doctors who are generally more attracted to work in the private sector).
And she also put the boot in over health minister Ana Paula Martins, who has run the gauntlet of political criticism since her appointment last April. Says Lusa, in Bordalo e Sá’s opinion, “the current Minister of Health hasn’t had the competence to lead the SNS (…) That’s why we never tire of repeating that we demand a Minister of Health who understands health and who serves the SNS as it should be”, she said
FNAM is already conducting a long-term work to rule over overtime, refusing to accept any overtime “beyond the annual legal limits” (of 150 hours) until December 31. This effectively means that all FNAM members are now refusing any more overtime, as the limits on overtime begin in January every year, and by now, almost every doctor has exceeded them. ND
Source material: LUSA
