The audience is the culmination of a two-day meeting and will be attended by a delegation of three Portuguese doctors, led by Tiago Villanueva, president of the European Union of General Practitioners (UEMO), who, in statements to the Lusa agency, considered that, given the Pope's global influence, having Francis "give visibility to the role of the family doctor, to the importance of the family doctor is absolutely extraordinary". According to Tiago Villanueva, the meeting takes place within the scope of the Pope's "unprecedented celebrations" for World Family Doctor Day, marked on May 19, and will underline how "family doctors are important and that it is important to recruit more family doctors and keep them in the system, because today recruitment and retention are a problem". "And I'm not talking about Portugal, I'm talking about countries in Northern Europe, countries in North America and rich countries, where family doctors are well paid and have better working conditions than in Portugal, but even in those countries it is very difficult to keep family doctors in the system", said the president of UEMO, adding that he was "very excited" to see that the Pope "is sensitive to this issue" and from whom he expects a message to speak "of the importance of the role of the family doctor in health systems". Asked about the paths that should be followed to solve the difficulties in recruiting family doctors, Tiago Villanueva told Lusa that "everyone talks about salary issues", but "this goes far beyond salary conditions". "It is important to provide better working conditions. People think that [family] doctors have an easier life than in hospitals, but it is not true, because [family] doctors still work under enormous pressure, with consultations that last 15 or 20 minutes, seeing often very complex patients, for many hours", he said. Faced with this pressure, "it is essential to increase labour flexibility". "If you go to the United Kingdom, it is rare for a family doctor to work full time, because doctors know that if they work full time they will go into 'burnout', because working as a family doctor is very demanding", stressed the president of UEMO. On the other hand, family doctors "want to have a career plan". "Careers are stagnant and I think it is important to offer a more attractive career plan than just the assistance part. Offering a career that includes conditions for developing research, doing a doctorate, combining with teaching functions", he defended, as possibilities to make the mission of family doctors more attractive. The campaign "Thank You Doctor!", launched in November 2023 at the Vatican, is a global initiative that aims to highlight "the humanizing role that primary care physicians, also known as family doctors, play in the health system and in society". Initiated by the non-profit medical association SOMOS Community Care, from New York, in collaboration with the Pontifical Academy for Life, the campaign involves associations such as the European Union of General Practitioners (UEMO), the NYS - Academy of Family Physicians, the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, the World Health Council and the Journal of Research & Applied Medicine. These institutions signed the "Declaration for the rediscovery of the family doctor", in which they appeal to all social and political actors to join forces and put the doctor/patient relationship back at the centre of health systems. Read Also: SNS Director? SIM highlights "military profile", Fnam warns of "difficulties" (Portuguese version)