Appearance | Desperate residents of the chancellery demand access to decent health care

Alfredo Antunes, president of the parish council, is also concerned. Image

The family doctor has been on vacation for months and about a thousand users do not have access to primary health care in the parish. Residents went in droves to the last municipal assembly in Torres Novas to express their discontent and demand a solution.

One and a half hundred users of the Health Chancellery Center went to the last Torres Novas Municipal Assembly, held on the night of April 27, to express their indignation and concern about the lack of access to primary health care. And the family doctor who responded to about a thousand users, who was attacked in August last year by a man who asked to see her, is again on sick leave and there is no hope of her ever returning to work in that parish.
Bruno Soares was one of the citizens who spoke out to express the general dissatisfaction of residents who feel “very difficult to get advice” even when traveling to other health units in the municipality. In addition, he indicated that there was a certain discrimination in the care provided to the users of the Chancellery by the staff of these health units, which he believes is related to the episode of aggression that ended with the removal of the family doctor. “Because of one person we pay for everything,” he stressed.
Chancery Council President Alfredo Antunes has also expressed concern about the lack of access to primary health care in the parish, where most residents are elderly and do not have the means to travel. Speaking to O MIRANTE, the mayor explained that after a citizen who did not belong to that parish attacked the doctor, the parish council “tried everything” to get the health professional back on duty. She explained that, at her request, a full-time security guard was put in the mail and a glass door was put in so she could “feel more secure,” but a discussion with a user, about three months ago, ended with a new file dictating the removal of a doctor who is on sick leave and has no hope. in return.
Remember, the health worker had been working in the Chancellery’s office for less than a month when she was attacked in the face by an employee assigned to another health unit in the municipality who had demanded to be present. The doctor sustained minor injuries to her nose and jaw and was taken to the hospital, where she underwent some tests. Then he spent several months on sick leave.
The mayor ensures the appointment of the doctor
The mayor of Torres Novas, Pedro Ferreira, showed his solidarity with the residents of the Chancellery and added that he was available to study the possibility of organizing transport so that users could travel to another health unit. The Socialist Mayor added that he confirmed, in a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Health and Director of the Medio Tejo Health Center Group, Diana Leria, that in the next national competition to recruit family doctors, which he estimates until July, a vacancy will be opened for the chancellery, even with guarantees given that it will be filled.
But the problem of lack of family doctors does not only affect the diocese of Chancelaria, as noted by the presidents of the Council of Assentis and the federation of the dioceses of São Pedro, Lapas, Ribeira Branca, Lionel Santos and Júlio Clérigo respectively. Also in these areas, the lack of access to primary health care has been felt for several years.