Minister “values” and “takes very seriously” doctors’ reactions to this Friday’s meetings
The Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, said this Friday that the Government is available to listen to doctors, to “value the reaction” they had at the negotiation meeting and “to take it very seriously seriously.”
“We are available to listen to what the doctors told us today, to value the reaction that the doctors had today, to take it very seriously, because we take these negotiations very seriously tions and the need we have for our doctors, nurses, pharmacists – and everyone else, but now we are negotiating with them – to want to stay in the National Health Service (SNS)”, said the Minister of Health to margin of a visit to Hospital São Francisco Xavier, in Lisbon, later this afternoon.
The Government, represented by the Ministry of Health and the Public Administration area, is in negotiations with the unions of doctors, nurses and pharmacists, who want revised careers and salary improvements, with the structures representing doctors refusing to sign the negotiating protocol this Friday, as it does not include all the matters they want to see negotiated, namely the revision of the salary scale.
“It recommends all prudence and all the need for dialogue that we now look at what was asked of us and for that very reason we will have to look at what was asked of us and that is the guarantee I can give to all doctors”, said the minister, expressing willingness to work and “add to the protocol what are the legitimate expectations of doctors”.
Asked whether SNS doctors can expect increases equivalent to those recently decided for regular doctors, who will see a 40% increase in their hourly rate, Ana Paula Martins said that the objective is for SNS professionals to SNS “work in your teams”.
“We will do everything to ensure that our professionals in the SNS have the best conditions to be in the SNS and carry out their tasks”, he said.
Regarding the possibility of negotiating meetings limiting the SNS’s response in the summer and what the emergency plan will be for that period, the minister admitted that there is “a way forward and the Government is very interested and absolutely available to take this path”, but stressed that the emergency plan that will be presented next week for the SNS is more comprehensive than the emergency plan for the summer.
Ana Paula Martins sent details about the plan for next week and the explanations that will be given by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro.
The minister, who resigned from the administration of Hospital de Santa Maria, in Lisbon, in a break with the Government due to the decision to adopt the new management model of Local Health Units (ULS) for that unit hospital, did not want to commit to any intention of changing this model, saying that it will work with the boards of directors of the new ULS, recognizing that “there is a lot of work to be done good”.
Ana Paula Martins also left a guarantee of security regarding the news that reports on more than a hundred generic medicines sold in Portugal, which, as recommended by the European Commission, will be sold suspended and authorizations cancelled, after an assessment by the European medicines agency concluded that it was not possible to demonstrate its equivalence to reference medicines.
“The medicines that we have in Portugal and that are identified as medicines that are part of this alert and this surveillance are absolutely out of risk. The risk is being completely managed and therefore we ask everyone to Rest assured, everything we have on the market in Portugal at the moment is perfectly safe, that’s a guarantee”, said the minister.
Infarmed announced, however, that it will maintain the sale in Portugal of eight of the more than 100 medicines tested by the Synapse laboratory, in India.
