Fnam: Around a thousand vacancies for family doctors should have been opened

The Central Administration of the Health System ( ACSS ) announced on Monday that, of the 389 family doctors who recently completed their specialty training, only 231 chose one of the 585 vacancies made available in the last competition for placement in local health units (ULS).

“It is a very low number and this is also causing outrage, because at this stage we even have doctors who want to stay in the NHS and, simply, they did not have their place”, highlighted the president of Fnam , Joana Bordalo e Sá, in statements to Lusa.

Stressing that each vacancy corresponds to around 1,600 users and that there are more than 1.6 million people still without a family doctor, the leader defended the need to open “more or less” 1,000 vacancies nationwide.

“If we assume that each family doctor will have a number of patients of around 1,600, it is just a matter of doing the math. We realize that there is a shortage of at least 1,000 doctors. By having only half of them open, (…) the probability of people choosing the vacancies decreases,” he explained.

Joana Bordalo e Sá considered that the Ministry of Health “repeated last year’s mistake” by not opening all vacancies.

“This is unacceptable. (…) This year it was even more blatant… [The ministry] has to open all the vacancies, because it gives people more chance to choose one and not be left out of the SNS [National Health Service],” he said.

Fnam will join the “One List, One Vacancy” movement and will be present at the vigils that will take place next Saturday, June 28, at 7:30 pm, in defense of the NHS and General and Family Medicine (MGF).

The vigils will take place at the Norton de Matos Health Center, in Coimbra, and at Porto City Hall, where the president of Fnam will be present.

The federation also joined the public petition “It is urgent to open all vacancies in General and Family Medicine and guarantee regular mobility competitions”, which already has 3,225 signatures.

The petition calls for all vacancies in MGF to be opened and for regular mobility competitions to be held so that the discussion can reach parliament and useful proposals can be discussed to maintain the sustainability of the NHS.