Doctors Forced into Strike Action
"Doctors are being pushed into this strike by Ana Paula Martins and the policies of Luís Montenegro's Government, which stubbornly insists on not negotiating decent conditions for doctors to work in the National Health Service," explained Joana Bordalo e Sá to RTP.
The president of FNAM places full responsibility for this strike on the Executive and "for all the appointments that will be postponed, whether at health centers, hospital level, and also for the surgeries that will be delayed." Regarding the Minister of Health, the union representative regrets that she only has to offer "forced mobility of doctors" and that she "lied to the Assembly of the Republic (...) when she said that this would not happen - this forced mobility - to staff regional emergency services."
Forced Mobility Threatens Maternal Care
The truth, continued Joana Bordalo e Sá, is that the Minister of Health wants to impose this "forced mobility," particularly in obstetrics.
"And Luís Montenegro is also complicit in this and will also be lying to the entire country if, in fact, they are implemented," she added. "This forced mobility does not serve doctors, but it also does not serve the population, because pregnant women and babies will not have local services."
These measures that the Ministry wants to implement, explained the FNAM president, will mean "that emergency services will be permanently closed - as in Barreiro, as in Setúbal - and pregnant women will have to continue traveling kilometers and kilometers to be attended."
Continuing Crisis in Emergency Services
"Therefore, we will continue to have births in ambulances across this country," she said, adding that what FNAM aims for with this strike "is to negotiate seriously, transparently, without backroom deals, the solutions to have more doctors in the SNS."
Government Intransigence Condemned
"That's why we are on strike," she emphasized.
When questioned about the Government's intransigence, Joana Bordalo e Sá considered that "it has been total" and that, "clearly, it does not give a signal that it wants to negotiate, but rather to impose" measures that, the representative admits, "do not serve doctors, but above all do not serve the National Health Service."
"Both Ana Paula Martins and Luís Montenegro are responsible for the destruction of the National Health Service," she concluded.
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