Doctors who are part of medical boards can now have direct access to the user's clinical information, meaning they no longer need to go to their family doctor to ask for a medical report.
The Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS) states, in a statement, that reducing bureaucracy in medical leave checks can improve patients' access to healthcare.
According to DE-SNS, the recurring request for updated reports from the family doctor, made by the user, “generated avoidable visits to the health unit and unnecessary consumption of General and Family Medicine consultations”.
“There are approximately 500 consultations that will be available for patients who really need an evaluation by their family doctor, increasing timely access to the SNS”, he highlights.
The de-bureaucratization of medical leave checks came into force after training was carried out for doctors who are part of Social Security boards.
This measure joins others carried out to reduce bureaucracy in the system, such as self-declaration of illness, the possibility of issuing certificates of temporary incapacity (discharge) in emergency services and private and social health institutions and the increase in the period discharge for oncological, cardiovascular and surgical situations.
Quoted in the statement, the executive director, Fernando Araújo, also recalls the increase in the validity of prescriptions and exams for 12 months and the creation of the mechanism for accessing medicines for chronic diseases in a simple way in community pharmacies, remembering that these have also started to carry out seasonal vaccination (flu and covid-19).
«The administrative simplification measures, which had been demanded by doctors and users for over 10 years, were implemented in one year, with a significant impact: it is assumed that more than two million medical appointments will be avoided annually just to resolve bureaucratic issues», highlights Fernando Araújo.
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