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The performance award for professionals of the National Health Service (SNS) who were at the forefront in the fight against the pandemic in the first state of emergency will reach around 25,000 employees, the Ministry of Health revealed to the PUBLIC. The attribution of this premium, which is divided into the equivalent of 50% of their basic monthly salary paid in a single installment and in addition to vacation days, has been highly contested by the unions for not covering all health professionals .
The creation of this award was approved by Parliament, when discussing the Supplementary Budget for this year. Although the law provides for its regulation to be made at the end of August, only recently have the criteria been defined and published in newspaper of the Republic. And until now the universe of health professionals that would be covered was unknown.
In response to the PUBLIC, the Ministry of Health assured that “around 25 thousand SNS professionals will be covered, with an estimated cost of 23 million euros.” Asked about when the premium will be paid – the law defines it as this year – the ministry said that “the processing of the payment of the respective premium is the responsibility of the health units.”
Regarding additional vacation days, it is defined that one day is assigned for each 80-hour period of “normal work actually performed during the state of emergency” and one day for each 48-hour period of “overtime”. These extra days can be taken until the end of next year. Regarding the number of vacations assigned, total and by professional area, the information is still being consolidated, ”said the Ministry of Health.
According to the regulations, professionals who have been working in areas of covid-19 or with suspected cases – hospital areas, primary health care and public health – are eligible for at least 30 of the 45 days that the first state of emergency lasted. , “Including mandatory and supplementary weekly rest days, as well as possible periods of prophylactic isolation or illness derived from SARS-CoV-2 infection, provided they result from the direct exercise of duties”, as stated in the order published in the beginning of the month. They include prehospital emergency medical technicians, professionals from medico-legal services, workers from health units of prison services, and civilian workers from the Hospital of the Armed Forces.
The criteria defined by the Ministry of Health were immediately criticized by the representatives of doctors and nurses. Especially because they consider that they were very limiting for the beneficiaries, because the premium is subject to taxes and because it does not take into account that the other health professionals also contributed to this response, although they are not in the areas of covid-19. There is also the question of paying the premium now, in a phase in which the country is going through a second phase of the pandemic with numbers of positive cases and hospitalizations much higher than those registered between March and April.
“As important as those who were on the front line, they are those who guarantee the care of their patients. “We regret that this value [do prémio] be subject to taxes, ”Jorge Roque da Cunha, from the Union of Independent Doctors, told PUBLIC at the end of November. Also at the time Lúcia Leite, president of the Portuguese Nurses Association, considered that “giving the prize only to the first slot is a poisoned gift and the way you handle it, the more poisoned it will be.”
