The minister is a problem or a health problem – an observer

Ordem dos Médicos is the public professional union that represents, and is registered with, all who practice the profession of physician. Among its powers, and at its head, the Medical Syndicate shall regulate the access and practice of the medical profession and contribute to and defend the public interests of the profession. Taking advantage of these powers, he prepared the order and put forward a proposal for public discussion on the organization of the constitution of medical teams in emergency services where it was allotted to determine the composition of emergency medical teams according to specialization (a total of 28) and type of emergency, with reference to the minimum number of specialist doctors and the maximum number of Trained physicians who must complete measures of urgency to ensure quality and safety for patients and the community at large.

In defining the criteria for the formation of emergency teams, the Portuguese Medical Association used the principle of maximum guarantee, the desire to ensure the best possible service to the population, especially SNS users, while improving the conditions for the practice of medicine.

This purpose, although noble and necessary, has clashed with what has been the management of social networking services in the past decade, which does not include the maximum quality of care, but the guarantee (?) of the minimum necessary for the operation of the services, or not, there is a lot of news about the reforms Exceptional and emergency reforms and measures.

Alarm bells sounded immediately, both in the Ministry of Health and in hospital departments: if this system were approved – without a huge investment in SNS – it would be extremely difficult, not to mention impossible, to ensure that emergency scales are established in accordance with established standards, jeopardizing the operation of the emergency system , in so far as it was another argument in favor of physicians to absolve their responsibility or even refuse to work outside the terms specified in their order, and to subject themselves, even, if they did so, to disciplinary power.

It is therefore not surprising that the Ministry of Health hastened to request an opinion from the Public Prosecutor’s Office which clarifies, in more than a hundred dense pages, all the legal reasons which – in its opinion – prevent the Ordem dos Médicos from being able to approve the said regulation or can be considered valid, thus It causes the effects you intend. The opinion of the PGR says that the operating manual goes beyond the powers that the law defines for it.

Even if the medical association erred in the legal form of the regulation, is there anyone who doubts its knowledge and competence in assigning references to the formation of emergency scales? There is none: not even the law, which already states in its current version that standard standards for emergency services must respect, “whenever possible,” the levels of assistance established by the operating manual.

The problem is that it is rarely possible to meet these levels… Hence, the contribution that OM now makes, through its specialized faculties, is fundamental to the functioning of the SNS in terms of quality.

In the same way, the bar must also define, for example, the criteria for the preparation of measures of attendance and prevention in the context of access to the law, insofar as it is the entity with the greatest legitimacy and technical capacity for this purpose. .

So it seems that, contrary to what should happen, the Ministry of Health and the Medical Syndicate are retracting this issue, which remains contradictory, since it is the state itself that creates professional associations.

It would be beneficial for them to cooperate closely, such that a common goal is the maximum possible quality of the entire SNS, especially when we most need to turn to it.

If the Ministry of Health does not stop this absolutist, hostile and autistic form of government, this regulation will be a “failure”. The Medical Syndicate appealed to the courts.

However, the government will reduce investment in SNS, and will judge hospital administrations on economic and discretionary terms. Standard medical team composition will not respect good medical practice. Doctors – who are increasingly harassed, underpaid, and in worse working conditions – will continue the legitimate journey into the private sector, and people – us – will be treated increasingly badly by social media services.

Health problems are not from the eighties. The Ministry of Health should listen and engage in dialogue with doctors. For all this, the minister just “fell”.