Federation of doctors wants “joint fight” of the entire health sector against “disastrous policies” of the ministry
The National Federation of Doctors (Fnam) decided today to “toughen up the fight” against the Government’s health policies and will meet with the unions of the remaining professional classes in the sector to define a plan with this objective.
“We believe that the entire health sector has to come together to face these disastrous policies that have been practiced by Ana Paula Martins’ Ministry of Health which, in essence, is just entering into cover negotiations with the entire sector”, the president of the federation told Lusa.
This was one of the deliberations of the Fnam National Council that met today in Coimbra to analyze the state of the National Health Service (SNS), but also the State Budget proposal for 2025 that the Government delivered on Thursday to parliament.
“We are going to start an effort to design this entire joint struggle”, said Joana Bordalo e Sá, highlighting that the decision to escalate the forms of struggle was decided unanimously in the National Council.
According to him, the doctors were “completely willing to toughen up the fight in an effort with the rest of the professionals”, such as nurses, senior diagnostic and therapy technicians, psychologists, pharmacists and nutritionists, among others.
“We need doctors, but it is the entire health sector that is harmed by this type of policies that have been applied by the Ministry of Health”, warned Joana Bordalo e Sá, for whom the State Budget proposal for next year is “completely empty” in measures to strengthen human resources in the NHS.
The union leader also said that the “form of struggle” has not been defined, but admitted that the possibility of a national strike by all professional classes in the public health service “is on the table”.
The State Budget proposal for 2025 foresees that SNS personnel expenditure will increase by around 425 million euros next year, totaling 7.09 billion euros (+6.4%).
Overall, Health will have more than 16.8 billion euros available next year, with the budget allocation essentially divided between personnel expenses (41.8%) and acquisition of goods and services (49.6%) , which includes purchases of medicines, complementary means of diagnosis and therapy and public-private partnerships.
The National Council also decided, according to Joana Bordalo e Sá, to demand that the Ministry of Health return to negotiations with the union structure, considering that it “represents a large portion of unionized doctors in the SUS”.
Fnam intends to negotiate with the government the possibility of doctors returning to exclusive dedication, on an optional and increased basis, the replacement of 35 hours of work per week and the integration into the medical career of interns (in training in the specialty they chose).
“As we are a structure with so much representation, Ana Paula Martins’ Ministry of Health has no other solution than to meet with Fnam”, highlighted Joana Bordalo e Sá.
