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Professionals from the National Health Service (SNS) cannot leave for the duration of the state of emergency, if they are considered essential to ensure the response of the units in which they work, in this critical phase of the second wave of the covid-19 epidemic. 19. This temporary impediment is established in an order of the Ministry of Health that allows the “mobilization” of the workers of the services and establishments of the NHS who have requested the termination of their contracts in recent weeks. Released earlier this week, the order is already being challenged.
Minister Marta Temido delegated, by order, to the Deputy Secretary of State “the competence to determine the mobilization of workers from the services and establishments of the SNS” who “request the termination, by complaint, of the respective employment contracts”, in view of “the guarantee of response” of the services, an exceptional measure that is foreseen in the decree of the state of emergency. “The assessment of the specific circumstances in which the mobilization of workers is justified”, taking into account the indispensable consideration of their adequacy and proportionality must be carried out by said services and establishments of the SNS “and must be” duly grounded in terms of the workers in the cause and the essentiality of their mobilization, “says the office.
But there is already at least one group of 18 nurses with experience in intensive care whose dismissal requests from the Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Norte (CHLN) -which is part of the Santa María and Pulido Valente hospitals- have been suspended and are trying to legally challenge the content of this order. The 18 nurses requested the termination of their contracts to go to work in other hospitals, mainly in the private sector, but were informed on Tuesday by email that the process was suspended for the duration of the state of emergency.
Filomena Gonçalves, 35, 12 with experience in intensive care, was stumped when she saw the email administration of the hospital center. His discharge process was completed on October 26, he had already negotiated a contract in a private hospital that offered him “better conditions”, and he had agreed to notify Santa María with only one month in advance (legally there are two), taking advantage of the holidays . I had to enjoy and overtime.
“Many people leave but there is no attempt to negotiate with people” at a time when the private sector “is expanding, it has more and more clients because the SNS is declining,” he criticizes. Filomena guarantees that it was not only the money issue that made her want to leave. Individuals also offer “career progression”, while on the NHS the career “is frozen,” says the nurse who complains that she is now earning “the same as she was earning when she started working.”
“It is a kind of civil requisition, it is an attack on freedom and democracy”, considers Gorete Pimentel, of the Independent Union of All United Nurses (SITEU). “Although it is a rhetorical complaint, because apparently we will not be able to do anything during the state of emergency, we will not accept it quietly and with our heads down,” he says.
“Do your best to reverse this situation”
SITEU management is “doing everything possible to reverse this situation and is committed to reporting this mishap,” confirms Sónia Viegas, who is a union delegate in Santa María and works there in an intensive care service. “Everything was already taken care of and my colleagues had days to leave. They are playing with the freedom and lives of people who seek better working conditions. They had five months to plan, it was already known that the second wave would be worse than the first, and they did nothing. They will probably lose the opportunity they had on the other side, they are suspended lives, “he laments.
In addition to the demand for private hospitals, which has skyrocketed in recent weeks, many nurses who had to go to work in the capital are now taking advantage of this “window of opportunity” to get closer to their family, especially in the north of the country, where they have opened hospitals. in recent months, the hiring is reserved, and there are also cases of nurses who go abroad, describes the nurse.
“Since the beginning of the year around 180 nurses left the hospital, but I managed to hire 165. We are a dynamic hospital structure,” explains the CHLN manager nurse, Ana Paula Fernandes, recalling that last April the Minister of Health issued a The same order that, in addition to temporarily preventing departures, suspended vacation time.
But Ana Paula Fernandes recognizes that the situation, especially in intensive care and other critical areas, is now very complicated. “As of November 11, 16 nurses left [sobretudo dos cuidados intensivos]. Only in one of the services asked to leave [agora] five, it’s a whole team. Some say they are going to leave overnight, ”he says. “We don’t want to retain anyone, it is difficult for us to do this but we have no alternative. And the situation is transitory ”, he emphasizes. Furthermore, public hospitals cannot compete with private ones. “Santa María is a school, it gives training, but whenever it opens a unit, it brings us professionals.”
The PUBLIC asked the Ministry of Health if there are many cases of nurses and, eventually, doctors and other health professionals in this situation, but received no response. with Ana Maia
