Doctors in Portugal strike, warn of ‘imminent breakdown’ in hospitals

OVIEDO, Spain

Doctors in the Portuguese regions of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo region began a two-day strike on Wednesday, demanding better pay and working conditions.

At the same time, the Order of Physicians, the public entity that serves as the regulatory and licensing body for medical practitioners in Portugal, warned of an ‘imminent breakdown’ in hospitals across the country.

“Doctors work overtime, without rest, in small teams, often with insufficient and undignified conditions,” said the body's head Carlos Cortes in a statement. “We can’t waste more time; there can be no more misunderstanding and inactivity. We are entering winter, the most difficult period of the year… and we are far from being prepared.”

The licensing body appealed to the government to find an urgent solution to prevent the collapse of health and emergency services across the country’s National Health Service (NHS), saying the working conditions and lack of staff “are compromising the quality of health care and the safety of patients in various hospitals from north to south of the country.”

“Without doctors, there is no NHS,” warned Cortes.

Meanwhile, the SIM union that organized the strike in and around Lisbon said there was a high adherence to the strike — around 85% in operating rooms and 80% in outpatient consultation.

Jorge Roque da Cunha, secretary general of the union, said the strike is a “clear sign” about the “fairness of our claim.” He said the government offered doctor raises of 3.1% when their purchasing power was reduced by 22%.

Negotiations between doctors’ unions and the Health Ministry began in 2022, but so far there has been no agreement.

This is the second strike around Lisbon in a month, and doctors in other areas of Portugal have also participated in walkouts.

"We hope that the government, sooner rather than later, can back down," Roque da Cunha said, considering that the country is living in an "unsustainable" situation, as shown by the number of Portuguese without family doctors, waiting lists, or the difficulties in composing the emergency service scales.

Portuguese doctors are by far the worst-paid doctors in Western Europe, and in real terms, their wages had fallen the most between 2010 and 2020, according to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development data.

Portugal is run by a Socialist government, which won an absolute majority in 2022. However, the administration is also grappling with teacher strikes called by the union STOP.