There are professionals from the Hospital de Portimão waiting for a tuberculosis screening appointment for more than 3 months, after having been in contact with a patient with this contagious disease.
At issue is the lack of an occupational health doctor (medicine at work) in the Algarve Regional Health Administration, a problem denounced by the Sindicato dos Enfermeiros in a meeting it held with PS deputy Miguel Freitas and with which the parliamentarian elected by the Algarve already confronted the Government.
The Algarve deputy has already made a presentation to the Ministry of Health, where he questioned whether the tutelage was aware of this case and what measures it intends to take, and will directly confront Minister Paulo Macedo in a parliamentary hearing that will take place tomorrow, Wednesday.
In addition to this lack of regular medical monitoring by the Algarve's health professionals, Miguel Freitas also brought to the Assembly of the Republic another major concern of nurses working in the Algarve, that of harmonizing the salaries of nurses who were recently hired and those who were already at the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve (CHA).
This was, moreover, one of the issues that motivated the two days of the Nurses' Strike, last November. All because there are newly hired nurses who are earning more than professionals who have been in the house, in some cases, for more than ten years.
«In fact, there are three distinct situations: Individual Employment Contracts (CIT) entered into with the “former” Hospital of Faro (35 hours per week for 1.020 euros; approximately 450 nurses), CIT concluded with the "former" Hospital Center of the Barlavento Algarvio – Portimão and Lagos Hospitals (40 hours per week for 1.165 euros; approximately 400 nurses) and new CIT made by the CHA, in 2014 (also 40 hours a week, but already for 1.201 euros; approximately 90 nurses)», highlights Miguel Freitas, in his presentation.
«This situation is even stranger when we know that there are hospitals in the country that have already harmonized the salary of nurses with CIT in the amount of 1.201 euros, such as the University Hospital Center of Coimbra, the Hospital Center of Póvoa de Varzim/Vila do Conde , the Local Health Unit of Matosinhos and the three hospitals in the Autonomous Region of the Azores,” he added.
The elected deputy argues that "the injustice created by this differentiation is instilling enormous dissatisfaction among nurses, because those who start functions now have a higher salary than those who have been working for more years and there are differences in treatment between health establishments."
Miguel Freitas also drew attention to «the scarcity of nurses and specialist nurses», with the Algarve being the region «with the lowest rate of nurses per thousand inhabitants, below the national and European averages».
As announced by Minister Paulo Macedo, during a visit he made to the Hospital de Faro, last week, since the creation of the CHA, 88 nurses were hired for the Algarve hospitals. But, reveals Miguel Freitas, 57 professionals have left, however, which leads to the increase having remained at 31 nurses.
Using the figures presented by the Algarve's ARS, which pointed to the lack of 156 nurses, the deputy emphasizes that 115 of these health professionals are still missing.
In addition, “both in primary care and in the South Physical Rehabilitation Center, no public tenders were opened” for the hiring of nurses.
Comments