Competition for hiring family doctors will be national again and there are already 30 applications for USF-C
After the PSD/CDS-PP Government changed the rules for hiring family doctors in June, putting an end to centralized competitions and allowing each Local Health Unit (ULS) to hold their competitions, for a total of 2,200 authorized vacancies, the minister retreats.
In a hearing at the Parliamentary Health Committee, at the request of the Liberal Initiative and Chega on the functioning of emergency services, Ana Paula Martins admitted that in the case of General and Family Medicine specialists the competition “did not go well” and that the rules were going to change again, announcing that in the case of this specialty the competition “will become national again”.
The minister added that, in total, 850 specialists were hired for the SNS out of the 1,310 who completed the specialty, and a further 230 doctors who were already outside the SNS.
It also announced that the government has already received “more than 30 expressions of interest” for the creation of Family Health Units model C (USF-C)the “private health centers” that this executive regulated, authorizing up to 20 units in the West, Lisbon and Algarve areas. According to Ana Paula Martins, these new centers could ultimately lead to another 300,000 people having a family doctor.
At the hearing, the minister refuted criticism from deputy Rui Cristina do Chega, who pointed out the “significant” worsening of the situation in Obstetrics and Gynecology emergencies across the country, “with an increasing risk for pregnant women and newborns ”. He also warned of “the alarming indicator of more than 40 ambulance deliveries”, since the beginning of the year, stating that it reflects “the failure of the system in supporting pregnant women”.
“There is a continuous deterioration of the situation, regardless of the magnitude, be it 20, 30% or more. The important thing is to recognize that the problem has worsened and to recognize the inability of the SNS to respond to pregnant women and all users”, said Rui Cristina.
In response, Ana Paula Martins questioned whether any study had been carried out to the effect that the situation in the SNS is “30, 40, 50% worse than last year”.
“The question we ask is: What study is this? Who was it made by? (…) It is a study carried out by commentators. It is a study carried out by the National Statistics Institute. It is a study carried out by DGS. It is a study carried out by the Ministry of Health. We do not have this information and data to conclude this”, highlighted the minister.
Liberal Initiative (IL) deputy Mário Amorim Lopes said, in turn, that “the case of obstetric emergencies worries all Portuguese people”, stressing that “the situation in which the SNS arrived did not fall from the sky”.
“It certainly resulted from the political incompetence of the previous Government, in addition to bad decisions. In fact, one of these bad decisions that clearly had an obvious impact on the functioning of obstetric emergencies was the end of PPP [parcerias público-privadas]”, he criticized, announcing that IL today submitted a draft resolution to parliament urging the Government to carry out pilot projects in Local Health Units under the PPP regime.
Addressing the deputies, the minister acknowledged that the situation “is not good”, but stressed that “it has not been good for 20 years” and will not remain so in six months, stressing that it is necessary to take “some decisions, and some They require courage, but they also require prudence.”
“The question is: Are we OK? Did we have a good summer? No, we didn’t pass. Did pregnant women have a good summer? No, they didn’t pass, they didn’t pass last year, they didn’t pass two years ago and they didn’t pass this year. What we have to do is take responsibility as a Government, so that the same situation does not happen again next summer”, he declared.
