Health: Strike in the Algarve affects emergency rooms, outpatient clinics and operating rooms

According to Alda Pereira, from the Portuguese Nurses Union ( SEP ), the strike participation of these professionals is around 80% and, in the operating room, participation is 100%, with all scheduled surgeries being cancelled and only oncological surgeries being carried out.

Rosa Franco, from the Union of Public Service Workers of the South and Autonomous Regions, said at a press conference in Faro that brought together representatives of various trade unions that "many services are affected," although minimum services are guaranteed, as required by law.

"The services that are affected and experiencing strong adherence are the Emergency Department, which is chaotic, outpatient consultations, which have many counters closed and no consultations, Radiology, the UCI [Intensive Care Unit] and the UCA [Outpatient Surgery Unit]", where surgeries are being cancelled, he indicated.

According to the director, due to today's strike, emergency service assistants, for example, are below the minimum required for the ratio: there should be 11 on call and there are six.

“I can give examples of colleagues who yesterday [Wednesday] had to work the night shift to ensure service,” he explained.

"Workers are responding to the unions' call to fight to improve working conditions, to have more workers in the National Health Service (SNS) in the Algarve to be able to provide the response that the Algarve people and our tourism sector need," he added, leaving a message for Tiago Botelho .

"When the chairman of the board of directors of the Local Health Unit says this is an unfair and partisan strike, we are not here representing any party. We don't have any party membership. And the strike is more than just."

André Gomes, from the South Zone Doctors' Union (SMZS-FNAM), said he did not yet have data on doctors' participation in the strike, postponing the provision of information until the end of the morning.

When asked by journalists whether he considered it responsible to call a strike in the Algarve in August, the union leader responded that a strike is always responsible, as long as that is the will of the workers.

"Minimum services are guaranteed and, as we said and also announced last week, this is a definitive warning to the government, because after years of attempted negotiations, after years of warnings, well, if nothing has worked, we have to move on to slightly more effective measures," he said.

The strike, scheduled for between midnight and midnight today , covers all health professionals working in the National Health Service (SNS) in the region (corresponding to the district of Faro), who are demanding, among other demands, the hiring of more staff to stop the burnout they say they are being subjected to.

This "good turnout shows that professionals want resolutions, they want to feel cared for, they want to feel motivated, beyond all their demands," Alda Pereira added to reporters, as is the case with "the debts that ULS Algarve owes to its workers, such as retroactive payments dating back to 2018, overtime, days worked on holidays and days off that are not increased in their pay, among many other common and cross-cutting problems that affect us all. The strike happened, and the unions united for a quality NHS, because the shortage of professionals is extreme," concluded the SEP leader.