This 24 September, the Portuguese nurses started a 2 days’ strike for better working conditions, with 83.5% of nurses participating in this action. The Portuguese Government tried to devalue the membership of nurses to the strike but without success. The majority of the population interviewed by the televisions agreed with the nurses and their commitment to fight austerity impact. On 25 September, nurses will have a demonstration in front of the Health Ministry. Around 1.000 nurses from all over the country are expected.
Portuguese nurses are struggling to survive with working conditions which are unacceptable in 2014. The reality where people work and live is totally different and unbearable for nurses working daily in the field, while in the meantime EU institutions and the Joint Action on Workforce is creating glossaries and ‘logbooks” of best practices to plan and forecast the nursing workforce, and collecting non comparable data to plan the workforce.
EFN Portuguese colleagues reported that the Ministry of Health agreed to admit 1.000 nurses in 2015, a number which is clearly inadequate to face the major challenges in the Portuguese Healthcare system. Portugal needs 6.000 nurses more within the primary health care (which is barely developed) and 19.000 for other sectors like hospitals, continuum care, palliative care, mental health, blood and transplantation institute and emergency. While Portuguese nurses move to other Member States to find a job, Portugal needs its own Portuguese nurses in order to transform and run the healthcare system in a cost-effective and sustainable way.
Therefore, the EFN CALLS ON the Portuguese Ministry of Health and Portuguese government to take immediate action to:
- harmonise nurses ‘ salaries with a non-public contract of employment by the value of the public nursing career;
- evaluate the skills of specialists nurses;
- design career progression and open competition for career development; and,
- restore the values of night shift, holidays, weekend work and overtime.
The EFN URGES the EU institutions, Commission, European Parliament and Council, to support the role and working conditions of nurses in the healthcare system by using the social cohesion funds to the local needs of the healthcare system; to make planning and forecasting a useful professional exercise, instead of a theoretical one, and making sure Member States comply with the European Directives (qualifications and employment), even in times of austerity.
Most policy-makers and politicians say “nurses are very important” but there is an urgent need to put these nice words into practice!