The Ministry of Health announced today that it will resume negotiations with the unions representing doctors on Thursday, following requests from union leaders for the immediate resumption of talks.
The negotiating round will be attended by the Minister of Health Manuel Pizarro and the Secretary of State for Health Ricardo Mestre, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Previously, on Tuesday, the Secretary of State for Health will receive the unions for a technical meeting dedicated to two new topics: regulation of Family Health Units and Integrated Responsibility Centers.
The Minister of Health had already announced this morning, in Vila do Conde, that he would call on the doctors' unions for a new round of negotiations after negotiations were interrupted following the resignation of the Prime Minister.
The government official also admitted to journalists that he has already been more optimistic about negotiations with doctors because he has not seen «any approach» to the Government's positions from those health professionals.
«To be honest, I have already been more optimistic because, the truth, what I have seen in recent months is the Government approaching the positions and demands of doctors and I have seen that on the other side there is no approach regarding issues which I think the Portuguese understand some of them very well", said Manuel Pizarro on the sidelines of the 5th International Congress and 12th National Paramyloidosis Meeting for Health Technicians, which takes place this morning in Vila do Conde, in the district from Porto.
The Independent Union of Doctors (SIM) and the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) have demanded the resumption of negotiations with the guardianship, as they consider that the Government is at full capacity and that it should not push the problems of the National Health Service to the next executive.
The last meeting between the Ministry of Health and the medical unions was scheduled for November 08th, but was canceled after Prime Minister António Costa resigned.
Also today, on the sidelines of an insurance conference in Lisbon, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, asked whether the Government would return to negotiations with doctors, said that the Government is conditioned in its action.
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