Doctors working in the National Health Service have started a three-day strike with the Algarve’s medics supporting the national call to down stethoscopes.Consultations and scheduled surgeries in Faro and Portimão hospitals are affected and statutory ‘minimum services’ are being guaranteed only for emergency cases.
The president of the National Federation of Physicians, João Proença, slammed cases in Lisbon and the Algarve where interns have been forced to boycott the strike and turn up for work.
The strike period is, "in defence of the National Health Service," according to the organising unions.
The main claim of the strikers is for the government "to respect the dignity of the medical profession," according to the two unions that called for the shutdown - the Independent Union of Physicians and the National Federation of Physicians.
The trade unions are demanding a reduction in supplementary work from 200 to 150 hours-a-year, a progressive decrease of up to 12 hours-a-week for emergency work and a gradual decrease in numbers on GP lists, from the current 1,900 to 1,500 patients.
The list of actions the unions want to see reviewed by the Ministry of Health include a review of medical careers and their attendant salaries, the unfreezing of medical career progression and a reduction in the retirement age.
