Santarem Hospital announced on Saturday the suspension from Monday of additional surgical operations performed by several specialist doctors who refuse to work more than the 150 additional working hours required by law.
In a statement, the Board of Directors of Santarem Hospital justified the measure with the request “submitted by several specialist doctors and specialist trainees” who expressed their “inability to provide any and all additional work beyond the maximum of 150 hours.”
In light of this refusal, “additional surgical activity to be conducted by the personnel who expressed their unavailability will be suspended, as of October 2 and for as long as this continues.”
The hospital indicated, in the statement, that surgical operations for which an appointment has already been scheduled are excluded, and “operation times may be distributed among other specialties according to the waiting list.”
When asked by Lusa, the hospital explained that the request to be excused from working more than 150 overtime hours was “submitted by 81% of doctors in the General Surgery Department.”
Regarding performing surgeries, “surgeons will continue to perform all scheduled surgeries during their regular working hours,” the foundation said in a response sent. e-mailExplaining that “additional activities are only resorted to when there is a waiting list that justifies them, which does not apply to the surgical waiting list for General Surgery at the District Hospital of Santarem (HDS), which has a controlled waiting list, and since April it has moved to the two sectors Private and social cooperation in this recovery.
Since the state contracts annually with the agreed sector, whenever the maximum guaranteed response times (TMRG) is exceeded, the patient is operated on through a surgical voucher at another institution, explaining that in HDS “no increase in surgical waiting lists is expected.” Administration.
The Provincial Hospital of Santarem, EPE, ensures the provision of health care to a resident population of approximately 184.6 thousand inhabitants spread across the municipalities of Almerém, Albiarça, Cartaxo, Chamusca, Coroš, Goleja, Salvatierra de Magos, Santarem and Río Mayor, in an area of 3,500 square kilometres.
In addition to its area of influence, it also provides care to residents in other municipalities of the region (Abrantes, Alcanina, Constancia, Entroncamento, Ferreira do Zizere, Macau, Ourem, Sardol, Certa, Tomar, Torres Novas, Vila de Rei, Vila Nova da Barquinha, Gavião), with a population of about 233 thousand people, in specialties such as vascular surgery, dermatology, infectious diseases, psychiatry and radiation oncology.
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