Azambuja is at the top of the current concerns of the Regional Health Administration (ARS) in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of that entity, Luis Pesco, told O Mirante that he is watching the situation with great concern. Currently, in this municipality of 22,000 people, only one family doctor works and users consider the situation unsustainable and inhumane.
“Azambuja is one of our biggest concerns because we want to provide the best services to the residents. The departure of doctors for retirement has been a massive thing that cannot be resolved overnight. We are well aware of what is happening and are waiting for solutions at all times,” he explains.
Among the solutions on the table is the opening of a competition with 200 vacancies for the entire region, including Azambuja, which could bear fruit. Other options include the possibility of establishing protocols with private social solidarity institutions that have on-call doctors. “We have to use everything we can to improve this situation,” he says.
Remember, the Azambuja Chamber was alerting the Ministry of Health and the ARSLVT to the successive deterioration of the physician shortage, which even the regulation of settlement incentives launched by the municipality had not succeeded in alleviating. The mayor, Silvino Lucio, told O Mirante that the municipality had requested an interview with the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, who had already been informed by letter of the unsustainable situation in which the municipal health services were operating. In addition to the Primary Health Care Unit (UCSP) in Azambuja, where the only full-time responding doctor works for 12,000 users, there are three other health centers in the municipality, in Manique do Intendente, Alcoentre and Aveiras de Cima, in which only two doctors work for a few hours.
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