The 18 new doctors who will arrive at hospitals in the Algarve can help resolve the difficulty in filling the scales in the Intensive and Neonatal Medicine Service of the University Hospital Center of the Algarve (CHUA), since among those placed there is a specialist in pediatrics and also a pediatric surgeon.
Paulo Morgado, president of the Algarve Regional Health Administration, speaking to the Sul Informação, considers that new clinicians "can help resolve the issue."
However, the official recalls that «neonatology is a national drama. Despite not being a specialty, not all pediatricians are qualified or have enough experience to work in neonatology, there needs to be a vocation».
Therefore, "it becomes even more difficult to fill these jobs, since there are fewer specialists who have this capacity".
According to Paulo Morgado, the difficulties CHUA has had in filling the schedules in September is due to an “almost perfect storm. Two doctors have serious health problems, one of them in charge of the service. There are also two situations of oncological problems with relatives of two others and there are two maternity hospitals».
According to the Sul Informação with a CHUA source, so far, the scales have been filled and are also guaranteed for the next weekend, while efforts continue to resolve the issue definitively.
"The service has been making an invaluable effort to keep it functioning and we are trying, with the help of other institutions, to fill the scales, with service providers and other doctors, but it is not easy to find neonatologists in Portugal", explains Paulo Morgado.
Marta Temido, Minister of Health, also addressed the lack of doctors in the Algarve last Friday.
In addition to having admitted the possibility of recruiting professionals abroad, the minister said that an "attempt to hire additional staff is being made, through the provision of services, and we are not ruling out the possibility of resorting to the collaboration of private entities". "What comes first is ensuring that services are available," he concluded.
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