The Ministry of Health opened a competition to fill 606 vacancies for newly graduated specialist doctors, 447 of which were for the hospital area, 142 for General and Family Medicine, 17 for Public Health.
According to orders published in Diário da República on Tuesday, December 16, in the area of General and Family Medicine (family doctors), the Local Health Unit (ULS) with the most vacancies is the one in the Sado Estuary, with 16 jobs, followed by those in Amadora-Sintra (12) and Leiria (12).
The ULS of Arco Ribeirinho has nine vacancies for family doctors and the ULS of Oeste and Guarda have eight each.
At ULS São José (Lisbon), seven vacancies are open, the same number as at ULS in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, while ULS Almada-Seixal, Lezíria and Médio Tejo have six vacancies each to fill.
With four vacancies each, ULS Lisboa Oeste, Santa Maria (Lisbon) and Arrábida (Setúbal) appear.
In the hospital area (447 vacancies), the specialty with the most vacancies is Internal Medicine, with 57 jobs, followed by Gynecology/Obstetrics (40), Anesthesiology (32), Psychiatry (27), Pediatrics (26) and General Surgery (22).
17 vacancies were opened for Orthopedics, Radiology and Intensive Medicine 16 each, Cardiology 15, Neurology 13, Medical Oncology, Pulmonology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 12 vacancies each, followed by the specialty of Urology, with 11 vacancies.
All other specialties have less than 10 vacancies each to fill.
The 17 vacancies to be filled in the area of Public Health are distributed across many other ULS in the country (one for each).
The order, signed by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, indicates that once the competition has ended, the hiring of medical personnel without links to the National Health Service may be authorized, on a career basis and with open-ended employment contracts, for vacancies that remain unfilled, “as long as the recruitment costs are duly included in the respective budget”.
For the purposes of granting incentives, the highest body of the health entity may proceed, with prior authorization from the member of the Government responsible for the health area, to reallocate jobs qualified as located in needy geographic areas that, at the date of publication of this order, have not yet been occupied.
On Saturday, the Independent Doctors’ Union (SIM) had warned that competitions to hire newly graduated specialist doctors were delayed, highlighting that the deadline for placing more professionals in public health services had ended on Friday (12th), since the final classification lists of the Medical Internship evaluation process were approved on 12 November.
For SIM, there should be a “permanent availability of vacancies” instead of “rigid competitive models, with limited time windows”, which it considers not to respond to the real needs of the SNS or the expectations of doctors.
Through the permanent availability of vacancies and the full disclosure of identified needs, the union believes that there would be “more opportunities to hire and retain doctors”, considers the union.