The Fnam, and since the meeting will take place at a time when it considers that the National Health Service (SNS) “lives in a context of risk of collapse” and in which “SNS doctors demand decent conditions and fair salaries”, proposed the following topics for discussion: “Replacement of the 35-hour weekly schedule; Recovery of purchasing power, given the approach of medical salaries to the national minimum wage; Reintegration of internship into the medical career; Recovery of lost vacation days; Improvement of ongoing training; Strengthening parenting support measures”.
According to Fnam, measures that, “many of them, have no budgetary impact, and that would allow doctors to reconcile professional, personal and family life, valuing their medical career and contributing to the sustainability of the NHS”.
In the statement, Fnam also warns that the SNS is going through “an unprecedented crisis”, with “health units closed, emergency services overcrowded and 63 babies born in ambulances or on the street since January”, adding: “From Chaves to the Algarve, pregnant women, children and the elderly travel dozens of kilometers to access essential medical care.”
Fnam also hopes that this meeting “marks the moment when the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, abandons the blocking stance and assumes a serious dialogue that allows doctors to exercise their profession with dignity, instead of continuing to be pushed out of the SNS”, demanding that a “commitment and immediate action” be made, because “the survival of the SNS depends on motivated and valued doctors”.
It should be remembered that after a summer of “pressure” on emergencies, especially in the area of Gynecology/Obstetrics, particularly in the Setúbal Peninsula region, the minister announced in Parliament, to deputies, that legislation was being prepared that would allow for the creation of regional emergencies, which would be discussed with doctors’ unions, and even new rules for hiring staff, but so far such diplomas have not been not even disclosed.