The medical unions that are meeting with the Minister of Health this Sunday are available to reach an agreement, but consider that the Government must improve the proposals during this afternoon's meeting.
“For the National Federation of Doctors, this agreement will only not happen if the Government does not have the political will to reach an agreement”, Joana Bordalo e Sá told journalists, at the entrance to the meeting taking place this afternoon at the Ministry of Health, in Lisbon.
“We received the Government's counter-proposal at 00:36 today, which demonstrates the lack of competence and diligence that we have been accustomed to for 18 months, which shows that the Government does not want to resolve the situation”, said the union leader, stressing that the two largest medical unions even presented a counterproposal ready to sign.
“Together with the Independent Doctors Union (SIM), we presented a proposal with a legal statement, ready to sign, but what they sent us is just a principle of agreement that does not review the situations necessary for doctors to be in the National Health Service (SNS), and the way they want to implement our three points are perfectly unacceptable”, he added.
What the Government wants, said Joana Bordalo e Sá, “is not a true phasing [of the reduction in service hours and emergency hours], it is a bargaining chip, they ask for more work for this demand to be accepted, and the The Government’s counter-proposal is silent on salaries”.
For SIM, Jorge Roque da Cunha said that the agreement “is in the hands of the Government, which has agreed to reduce working hours”.
“But the concrete circumstances, from our point of view, don’t make sense,” he said.
In statements to journalists before the start of the meeting, the SIM leader stressed that he was “in a constructive spirit and willing to reach an agreement”, but warned that “it is important that the government realizes that, if the situation continues as it has been until now, it will get worse , and change is completely in the hands of the Minister of Health”.
What is certain is that, for SIM, “talking about the reduction in the capacity of the SNS, coming from a government with an absolute majority that has been in power for eight years, is the responsibility of the Government”.
The counter-proposal, he concluded, “allows us to hire more doctors, reduce the workload and improve conditions, with more quantity and quality of health services”.
Negotiations between the Ministry of Health and SIM and FNAM began in 2022, but the lack of agreement has intensified the doctors' struggle, with strikes and declarations of excuse for overtime work beyond the mandatory 150 annual hours, which has caused constraints and the closure of emergency services in hospitals across the country.
This situation led the executive director of the SNS, Fernando Araújo, to warn that if doctors do not reach an agreement with the Government, November could be the worst month in 44 years of the SNS.
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