The Algarve’s nurses went on strike today with Faro, Lagos and Portimão hospitals badly affected with only urgent surgery being performed in Faro.
The overall strike rate was 65% according to the union representative who said the action was all to do with staffing levels.
The union’s Nuno Manjua said that health centres across the region also were affected, with São Brás closing down due to a lack of staff.
The strike was nationwide with the Union of Portuguese Nurses announcing that the strike rate in hospitals had been 80%.
Manjua says that members are indignant and that the highly publicised hiring of nurses, portrayed by the management and politicians as a huge success, was not even enough to replace those nurses leaving due to poor pay and conditions, and more leave each week that goes by leaving the Algarve vastly understaffed.
A study by the Order of Nurses concluded that there are 1,779 unfilled nursing posts in the southern half of the country.
This was the second Friday in a row that the Algarve’s nurses went on strike which, added to previous actions this year, shows management unable to grasp and deal with this problem.
Manjua says that there have been hirings, not enough to replace those who have left, but "zero progress on important matters," adding that the Ministry of Health’s handling of the Algarve’s nursing crisis is characterised by its "arrogance, disrespect and ignorance."
On a September holiday in the Algarve, Health Minister Paulo Macedo interrupted his sunbathing to visit the hospital in Portimão where he observed some renovation works and the reorganisation of the ER and inpatient areas.
"On the day that the minister came to Portimão and announced the hiring of these new nurses, another fifteen nurses left for the Middle East," said Manuja, highlighting the different world views of politics and medicine.
The union wants more nurses and fewer hours for the current ones who are being overworked to the point of exhaustion, claiming that this is not just for the nurses, it’s for the population" as the situation increases the risk of strikes and people deserve access to medical care.
