The number of nurses of foreign nationality in the National Health Service (SNS) decreased by almost half between 2006 and 2022, a decline that the President of Nurses justifies with the lack of working conditions in Portugal.
The latest report from the Migration Observatory, with data up to 2022, highlights the loss of relative importance of nurses in the Ministry of Health's total foreign human resources, which went from 1.054 in 2006 to 677 in 2022.
In 2010, they represented 22,5% of the total number of foreign human resources, representing only 17,1% of this total in 2019, which increased between 2019 (572 foreign nurses) and 2020 (635), representing 19,7% of the total, in 2021 (669), with less relative importance of 16,9%, and in 2022 (677), weighing 16,7% in total.
«In recent years, it has been an unattractive market for foreign nurses, due to the working conditions in Portugal and the low appreciation of nurses», explained the President of Nurses Luís Filipe Barreira, speaking to Lusa.
This reduction in foreign professionals in the SNS is accompanied by an export of Portuguese nurses, highlights the president, remembering that they look outside the country for better salaries, careers and working conditions.
Luis Filipe Barreira recalls the latest data from the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD) which, among 21 countries, places Portugal in 19th place, among those that pay the most poorly in European terms.
«It is not an attractive country, neither for those who are here, nor for those who want to come», concludes the President of the Nurses.
But Portugal does not have a shortage of nurses, he emphasizes, highlighting that enough nurses are trained every year to meet the country's needs, lacking a policy for retaining these professionals.
Another reason for the country's unattractiveness, according to this official, is the proportion of nurses per population, with Portugal being "well below" the OECD average.
In contrast to foreign nurses, the number of operational assistants of foreign nationality at the Ministry of Health has increased significantly over the last decade.
From 413 operational assistants in 2011 (when they represented 14,1% of foreign human resources), they increased to 1071 in 2020 (33,2% of foreign human resources), 1.243 in 2021 (31,4%) and 1.312 in 2022 (32,4 .2019%), surpassing the number and relative importance of foreign nurses since XNUMX.
In 2022, the SNS integrated 1.729 foreign doctors and 677 nurses of foreign nationality, in addition to 1.312 operational assistants, according to data from the Observatory.
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