"This increase must be understood as temporary, specific to this summer period, which is a more critical period, but it cannot obviously be understood as a structural issue", the president of the association, Xavier Barreto, told Lusa.

The Government has authorized a 40% increase in the maximum hourly value to be paid for the acquisition of medical services, which includes so-called freelance doctors.

In a reaction to this measure, Xavier Barreto said that human resources should be filled with professionals with "permanent contracts, with more lasting ties, with people who are part of the teams".

In his view, the provision of services, a form of work of a specific nature, "is not a good way to have professionals in a team".

"They are people who come from outside, often do not know the hospital, the team, the way of working" and often do not even have the qualifications that hospitals need, they are doctors without a specialty, but they are the ones who are available, he lamented.

For Xavier Barreto, what is desirable is that, "in the near future", these measures be replaced by "others that are more capable" of attracting and retaining professionals for the National Health Service in an individual employment contract and not in the provision of services.

"What we hope is that this measure is temporary and that it cannot in any way serve as an incentive for more doctors to understand that this form of work in the provision of services is desirable, [because] it is not", defended Xavier Barreto.

Asked if there is a risk that more doctors will opt for this form of work, the hospital administrator said he hoped not.

"I hope that the Government is also very clear in saying that this is a specific issue for this summer period and that it will not be a Government bet as a way of establishing ties with doctors or with any other health professionals", he argued.

Regarding whether hospitals are already taking measures to ensure the scales at a time when a week with several holidays and the holiday period is approaching, Xavier Barreto said that the hospital units "do what they always do".

"The holiday maps are coordinated among all professionals, ensuring that, from the outset, we will have the most complete teams possible in each of the periods", he said.

However, the experience of previous holiday periods indicates that, "in many cases, this is not enough", and there are not enough professionals to keep all emergency services operating with complete teams.

To alleviate this situation, the official said that there are two hypotheses: either the teams are reduced or the emergency service network points are changed.

"Instead of having a team, imagine five or six doctors, we have three or four, which seems to me to be a hypothesis that, for now, no one is willing to accept, because that could imply or represent a loss of security or quality in the provision of care", he explained.

"If we are not going to change the teams, we only have one hypothesis, which is to actually change the emergency service network points, and that is what has been done over the last year by the SNS Executive Directorate", ensuring that emergencies operate on a rotating basis at night and on weekends.

According to a delegation of powers dispatch published this month in the Diário da República, the top bodies of the establishments and services integrated in the National Health Service may, "in duly justified exceptional situations", apply a payment of a higher value/hour than that provided for, up to a limit of 40%.

Read Also: Order considers increase for freelance doctors "temporary measure" (Portuguese version)