More than 30% of specialist vacancies remain unfilled
FNAM, the national federation of doctors has warned today that more than 300 junior doctors have chosen to terminate their contracts and not undertake specialised training in Portugal’s SNS state health service.
Out of a total of 2,167 available vacancies, more than 30% remain unfilled, says the federation, marking the day that doctors can candidate for the vacancies available.
“The lack of uptake is particularly worrying in core specialties such as General and Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Public Health”, highlights FNAM, blaming the “hundreds of terminations and specialist vacancies to be filled” on the state system’s excessive demands and “working conditions that do not ensure quality training.
“By deciding not to choose a place for training in a specialty, doctors choose to undertake specialised training abroad or work as non-specialist doctors providing services in the SNS, or in the private sector”, the federation adds istressing that “only with the implementation of measures that guarantee quality training, decent working conditions and an attractive career will it be possible to maintain the level of excellence in health care” that the SNS should be providing the population.
Thus FNAM ‘demands’ “serious and competent negotiations, in defense of the health of the population, which cannot continue to be held hostage by a Ministry that has lost credibility among doctors and users, and is lost in the labyrinth of lack of competence that it has demonstrated in all areas of governance that are under its responsibility”.
There has been no time yet for response to FNAM’s warning and demands, but the situation with junior doctors in this country is, and appears always to have been, fraught.
A recent case in the Algarve, in which a junior doctor blew the whistle on practices she believed were harming patients saw a deal of flak aimed in her direction (even though numerous sources claimed she had been nothing short of courageous in voicing her concerns). Recent news even suggests that one of the surgeons she ‘denounced’ for questionable practices is attempting to sue her. The young doctor has taken this latest turn of events in her stride, but she has written over social media about her disappointment in a system that should protect those who speak out, but doesn’t. It needs to be remembered that of the 12 cases ‘denounced’ by this young medical professional, inquiries by health inspectors concluded that in half ‘solid evidence existed of violation of leges artis’. ND
Source material: LUSA
