Portuguese doctors are demanding better working conditions and higher pay. They are among many healthcare workers in Europe that are concerned about the public sector.
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00:00 Portuguese doctors are seeking higher pay and fewer overtime hours.
00:06 Protesting outside a conference hosted by the World Health Organization and Portuguese
00:10 government, the doctors demanded more support for health workers.
00:14 They are deeply concerned about the state of Portugal's national health service, with
00:18 doctors stretched so thin that many people are lacking a general practitioner and some
00:24 hospital services are now closing.
00:27 The medical doctors in Portugal want to be in the NHS.
00:31 Unfortunately, since our salaries are so low and our working conditions are so bad, the
00:36 government is not listening to us, is doing nothing to keep us in the NHS.
00:42 So it's their entire responsibility for this ugly situation.
00:48 We have a lot of patients for each medical doctor.
00:53 We would like to have fewer patients in our list because this way we could have more time
00:59 to be with them and take care of them.
01:03 And that is also one of the things we are fighting for.
01:08 Their demands are similar to those in the United Kingdom and France, where medical workers
01:12 have also urged the government to hire more doctors and raise wages.
01:17 The Portuguese government has been negotiating with the unions, but so far there is no agreement
01:22 with future strikes planned.
01:25 We are trying to make an agreement with trade unions.
01:28 Of course it's never an easy issue.
01:31 And try to promote new ways of organization.
01:34 Healthy doctors, healthy people.
01:36 That's the chant coming from Portuguese doctors today outside the World Health Organization's
01:41 Symposium on Digital Health Systems.
01:44 Like in many other European countries, Portuguese health workers say that they want a public
01:49 system that's better funded with more doctors.
01:52 They say their colleagues are going to the private sector and even moving to other countries,
01:57 and they want the government and the health ministry to hear their concerns.
02:02 Lauren Chadwick, Euronews.
02:03 [WHOOSH]