The president of the National Federation of Doctors, Joana Bordalo e Sá, confirmed to DN that the structure will join the general strike declared by the Common Front on October 24th. Joana Bordalo e Sá explained to DN that joining this protest serves to “safeguard” all doctors who want to express their “dissatisfaction” with what is happening in the National Health Service (SNS).
The announcement comes this Thursday, the 16th, and when the Minister of Health had scheduled several meetings for the morning with the unions representing SNS professionals, namely doctors and nurses, to publicize three decrees of law that involve changes to labor matters.
As DN had already reported this week, the minister brought to the table the Decree-Law projects referring to the new rules for hiring professional staff, with the aim of reducing the use of this type of professionals, the creation of regional emergencies in the country, as well as the creation of so-called High Performance Centers, a type of Integrated Responsibility Centers in hospitals, but only for the Gynecology-Obstetrics area.
According to the DN, legislation that involves changes to labor matters that require, at least, that unions be informed about their content. But as DN also mentioned this week, the president of Fnam fears that such “meetings will only serve to inform the unions without any negotiation so that the diplomas can be approved and published without our agreement”.
DN also learned from a supervisory source that the minister wants to take these diplomas to the Council of Ministers as quickly as possible, probably by the end of the month, although there should be more meetings with unions.
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