The extension to 90 days of the sick leave period for cancer patients, ischemic heart disease or stroke comes into force on Friday, but leaves out ADSE beneficiaries who pay into the Caixa Geral de Aposentações.
Until now, patients with disabling pathologies, such as cancer, cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) or ischemic heart disease, holding a certificate of temporary incapacity for work due to illness (CIT), had to renew this certificate every 30 days. .
The Government recognized that, «with regard to oncological pathology, cerebrovascular accidents, ischemic heart disease and post-operative situations, the currently established limits prove to be inappropriate, forcing users, in conditions of vulnerability and limited mobility, to having to go to the primary health care doctor just to obtain the CIT, with an inappropriate periodicity", according to the ordinance that changed these times.
In the same text (Ordinance no. 11/2024, of January 18) it is read that, «in this set of pathologies, the data demonstrate, in a balanced and demanding approach, that the extension of periods will simplify the lives of citizens and will allow doctors to have more time to consult patients, a situation that must be corrected with a view to good application of the law».
In this sense, the Government decided to extend to 90 days the time limits of the initial period and the extension of the certification of temporary incapacity for patients with oncological pathology, victims of stroke and ischemic heart disease.
In post-operative situations, the time limits for the initial period and for the extension are now 60 days and 180 days in tuberculosis situations.
The ordinance, signed by the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security Ana Mendes Godinho and the Minister of Health Manuel Pizarro, comes into force on Friday, but only for Social Security beneficiaries, leaving out, for now, beneficiaries of ADSE, the health subsystem for public employees, who deduct payments to the CGA.
When questioned by Lusa, an official source from ADSE said that it “awaits the publication of the amendment to Law no. 35/2024, of June 20th (as provided for by Law no. 82/2023, of December 29th – art. 316/OE 2024), which governs medical boards in the context of sickness absences of workers in public functions , integrated into the convergent social protection regime».
Article 316 of the State Budget (2024) authorizes the Government to “change the intervention regime of medical boards in the context of sickness absences of workers in public functions integrated into the convergent social protection regime, established in Law no. 35/2014, of 20 June”.
On the other hand, this law (35/2014) indicates that «absences due to an incapacitating illness that requires costly and/or prolonged treatment, give the worker the right to an extension, for 18 months, of the maximum period of absence foreseen», which is of “30 days, up to a limit of 18 months”.
As the legislative change has not yet been published, public servants integrated into the convergent civil service regime, in a situation of leave due to these illnesses, will have to continue to go to the ADSE medical board monthly for the extension of the CIT, unlike beneficiaries of the Social Security, which will be able to benefit from the extension starting on Friday.
Lusa contacted the Ministry of Health several times, for a month, and asked whether, from Friday onwards, there will be this differentiation of treatments for those with these disabling diseases, and received no response to the request for clarification. .
Also to repeated requests for clarification from ADSE, given the initial response, Lusa received no response.
Lusa knows that several doctors from ADSE medical boards have been faced with questions from patients who hope to be able to visit these boards more widely, which for some means traveling hundreds of kilometers, but these clinicians are also waiting for clarification of the direction of the Institute for Disease Protection and Assistance (ADSE).
Comments