The President of the Republic has issued the government diploma on the recruitment of foreign doctors “in view of the absolute priority” of ensuring doctors in the National Health Service (SNS), but expresses his doubts, the presidency announced.
Meeting this need, “but recognizing the low attractiveness for other doctors with already recognized diplomas – and even public commitments already made with Cuban doctors – and despite doubts about the connection with the Medical Association’s competences, especially in terms of recognition of specialties and proof of communication for doctors who do not have Portuguese as their mother tongue” (…) the President of the Republic has proclaimed the diploma, read a statement on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic.
The diploma in question was approved by the government in its final draft on August 24. The decree law provides for an exceptional and temporary scheme for the recognition of foreign academic degrees in medicine for the purpose of hiring doctors for the NHS.
The diploma had already been approved by the government in July, but the Council of Ministers approved the final formulation in August.
In June, the Ministry of Health admitted to hiring foreign doctors, a possibility that would be evaluated based on the results of competitions and the recruitment of specialists by the SNS units themselves.
In July, at the end of the meeting of the Council of Ministers that approved the first version of the diploma, the Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, emphasized that the new legislation would make it possible to respond to the lack of professionals in some countries. areas such as healthcare.
In Parliament, the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, announced the recruitment of 200 to 300 doctors from Latin America to work for three years in health centers in the regions of Alentejo, Algarve, Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, after Jornal de Notícias reported that the government was preparing to hire 300 Cuban doctors for the SNS.
The Medical Association contested at the Secretariat the automatic recognition of foreign medical specialties and defended its validation by juries based on the criteria used to validate medical specialties in Portugal.
Source: DN
