Physiatrists call for revocation of ordinance on pilot project

The Portuguese Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation called on the Government this Wednesday to immediately revoke the decree regulating the creation of a pilot project in integrated continuing care, claiming that there is a risk of disarticulation between teams.

At issue is an ordinance published on April 7, in the Official Gazette, which regulates “the conditions for the creation and implementation of the pilot project of the Continuing Care Teams (ECCI)” in six local health units, over a period of nine months.

For the Society (SPMFR), the Government is, with this measure, encouraging the disarticulation of teams and putting the population and public health “at risk” .

The ordinance, the physiatrists state in a statement, “clearly” promotes the disarticulation of health care, “in disagreement with all the structural principles of organization and an integrated vision of rehabilitation.”

According to the organization, the measure " encourages the dismemberment " of continuing care teams, which "no longer have a doctor and technicians, particularly physiotherapists," a circumstance it considers serious and which "places all responsibility for home care on nurses, replacing the doctor and other team professionals."

Doctors also say that “disaggregating the multidisciplinary teams” responsible for ongoing care goes against the guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"There is a clear violation of the technical-scientific model of rehabilitation, demonstrating that, once again, international standards and guidelines defined as essential for the provision of health care are being disregarded," argues the Society's president, Renato Nunes, as quoted in the document.

The SPMFR is ready to collaborate with the Government, “with a view to achieving excellence in the provision of healthcare.”

In the diploma, the Government determines that, given the aging of the population and the consequent pressure on the health and social systems, the need to evolve towards a reorganization of the response has become evident, which prioritizes access to home care, through the Integrated Continuing Care Teams (ECCI), “so that the citizen remains, for as long as possible, in their social and family context”.