On the first day of the two-day strike convened by the National Federation of Doctors (FNAM) considers that membership is “massive”, since it is around 85% to 90% in some primary health care units, advanced the president of this union Joana Bordalo and Sa
There are even cases, in Alto Minho and Trás-os-Montes, in which adherence to the strike “reached 100%”, since the doctors were on their way to the concentration that takes place this Wednesday afternoon at the Ministry of Health in Lisbon.
“Adherence was, in fact, massive. In terms of primary health care, adherence is around 85/90% and we have areas of the country where it was 100%, such as Alto Minho, Trás-os-Montes, areas here from Lisbon, the Azores. There were units where colleagues themselves closed the units because they were on their way to Lisbon”, he said.
According to the person in charge, even in the hospitals there was an “important adhesion in the operating blocks” operating with only the minimum services.
Several dozen doctors are concentrated in front of the Ministry of Health building, in the center of Lisbon, challenging Minister Manuel Pizarro to go and listen to their claims.
“We know that Doctor Manuel Pizarro is here in this building and we invite him to come down and be here with us, because he is our colleague and he knows very well what the problem of doctors in the National Health Service is and why every day doctors leave the SNS”, warned Joana Bordalo e Sá.
Fnam says it was “pushed” into this strike due to “lack of responses” to the revision of salary scales and the improvement of working conditions. Among the claims is the renegotiation of the medical career and the respective salary scale, which includes a base schedule of 35 hours, optional and increased exclusive dedication and the consideration of the medical internship as the first degree of the career.
The union structure also intends to review the organization and discipline norms of medical work, the replacement of the 25 working days of vacation per year and the additional five days, when they are taken outside the high season, as well as the reduction of the normal working time. in the emergency service from 18 to 12 noon.