Government opens tenders for hiring new specialists for hospitals and health centers

Diplomas will be published in Diário da República on May 2

The Government will open the processes of hiring 1180 specialists for the hospitals and health centers of the SNS, the Minister of Health announced yesterday. 

The disclosure is made in the same week in which the results of the final exams that confer the title of specialist to about 1500 young doctors were approved.

A joint order from the Offices of the Minister of Finance and the Secretaries of State for Public Administration and Health, signed this Friday, April 28, authorizes the hiring of 978 doctors for the area of ​​general and family medicine and 29 for the specialty of public health.

«This competition, in which vacancies are opened in all places where there are Portuguese without a family doctor, reinforces the commitment to increasing the response capacity of the public health service. Even though there are no candidates who can fill all the vacancies, the Government intends to signal its availability to hire all doctors who wish to provide services in the SNS», reads the note sent to the newsrooms.

With regard to the hospital area, the order provides for an increase of 179 doctors, who correspond to specific needs in specialties that do not provide an emergency service.

The ministry recalls that, in the case of hospitals, direct hiring is taking place, within the scope of the autonomy of each hospital, of all the doctors needed for the specialties that are present in the emergency services, with a maximum of 1562 doctors being able to be hired, that meet the vast majority of needs.

«The anticipation of the hiring of doctors from the specialties who are present in the emergency room has contributed to providing greater predictability and safety to the functioning of the SNS, increasing the satisfaction of professionals with the speed of the process. With this mechanism, it was possible to reduce the waiting time by more than three months between the moment young doctors finished their medical internship in the normal season of 2023 and being hired by hospital units», clarifies Manuel Pizarro. 

Additionally, to boost vacancies in areas or units that are particularly needy, another joint order from the Offices of the Minister of Finance and the Secretary of State for Health, also signed this Friday, April 28th, provides for the attribution of incentives the geographical mobility of physicians.

«This is a fundamental tool for attracting professionals to areas considered to be in need, responding to people's needs and reducing asymmetries», guarantees the Minister of Health. 

The incentives are intended both for vacancies identified in hospitals, as well as in public health and primary health care , "in the latter case, units with more than 25% of users without a family doctor were considered in need". In total, there are 275 vacancies in which it will be possible to receive incentives, that is, almost a quarter of those that will be put up for tender.

The new competitions also change the existing paradigm, «trying to combine the needs of the country with the expectations of professionals, with the objective of increasing the number of young specialists who remain in the SNS, but also of attracting doctors who had left the system in the last years".

In this way, clarifies the ministry, «some of the family doctors will be able to work, in mobility, in more deprived places, until the end of 2025, when they will have the option of continuing to work in the health unit where they will now be placed or to return to another area of ​​greater personal or family convenience and which is already defined»- 

The three diplomas mentioned, which authorize hiring, identify the vacancies that will be put out for tender and the positions designated as needy will be published in the Diário da República on the 2nd of May.

The Ministry of Health understands that these instruments, associated with the work that is underway on the ground, namely investment and requalification of infrastructure and equipment, and the enhancement of professionals, provide the necessary conditions to strengthen and prepare the SNS for the challenges of the present and of the future.

 



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