PORTUGAL: Portuguese doctors begin a two-day strike in a bid to save the country's struggling national health service

Record ID: 340853

  • Title: PORTUGAL: Portuguese doctors begin a two-day strike in a bid to save the country's struggling national health service
  • Date: 12th July 2012
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) DOCTOR, FATIMA PERALTA, SAYING: "If the minister and the government are not autistic, I believe the doctors' protest will necessarily change the health minister's attitude." BALLOON WITH WORDS "DEFEND THE SNS (NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE) FOR YOUR HEALTH" ON IT DOCTORS CHANTING " QUALITY YES, PRECARIOUSNESS NO!" DOCTORS PROTESTING DOCTORS CHANTING
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Portugal
  • Country: Portugal
  • Topics: Health,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAGIBFEMIMMOCGXC4C8BBONFTQ
  • Story Text: Hundreds of doctors gathered outside the Portuguese health ministry in Lisbon on Wednesday (July 11) at the start of a two-day strike.
    Doctors' unions are demanding the preservation of the country's national health service and want to see an end to the use of outsourced medical services.
    "If the minister and the government are not autistic, I believe the doctors' protest will necessarily change the health minister's attitude," said Fatima Peralta, a doctor taking part in the protest.
    Portugal's taxpayer-funded national health service (NHS) provides universal access, more or less free at the point of delivery. But with cuts demanded by international lenders in return for bailing out the government to the tune of 78 billion euros, medical services are being slashed.
    Analysts predict a mixed system to evolve in Portugal, where the state continues to fund core services, but people are asked over time to pay more out of their own pocket.
    Talk of tampering with the NHS is heresy to many Portuguese, who cherish the system as a symbol of the country's transition to democracy after the overthrow of its dictatorship in 1974.
    The unions are determined to keep the health service as it is.
    "(We are here) for the minister to preserve the national health service as it is now, because is a service that works in favour of our patients and in favour of a better health quality that is recognised by everyone in Portugal and in the world," said striking doctor, Costa e Silva.
    During the two-day stoppage, medical facilities are operating on a Sunday or holiday basis.
    The health ministry estimates the strike will result in the cancellation of 400,000 appointments and 4,000 surgical procedures.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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