Political turbulence in Portugal has led to healthcare crisis
Outside the cafe at the Hospital Hospital Hospital De São José in central Lisbon, some tired nurses drink their morning coffee.
– We are overloaded. No one replaces us on the weekends, says one of the nurses who wants to be anonymous.
Although it is very common to criticize the general health care system serviço nacional da saude Is there few in healthcare that dares to make it open.
– You never know if you happen to be reprisals, says the nurse.
Several of her colleagues have left Portugal to work in the UK or in Switzerland. First and foremost, it is the salary that attracts. In Portugal, a nurse earns the equivalent of SEK 10,000 a month. In the UK and Switzerland it triple.
– Several times I intend to migrate, but I have my family here, she says.
The healthcare crisis in Portugal Was clear last year when over 15 childbirth clinics were forced to strike again due to a shortage of staff. The closure resulted in over 40 pregnant women being forced to give birth in an ambulance because they did not reach a hospital with a functioning childbirth reception, according to Fnam, Portugal Medical Association. It is common for emergency rooms to be forced to strike again on the weekends due to staff shortages. In Lisbon, up to five emergency rooms of eight can close on Saturdays and Sundays.
-Portugal is an EU country. We live in the year 2025. It is not worthy that we have such a crisis, says Joana Bordalo E Sá, chairman of Fnam, Portuguese Medical Association.
She says that the government crisis has meant that politicians have not received the continuity needed to solve the crisis. Due to different scandals, Portugal in three years has had a middle -left government, a left -wing government and a middle right government respectively.
– We commute back and forth. We do not get the balance needed, says Joana Bordalo E Sá.
The low wages also have led to a medical deficiency. Last year, 1,463 doctors left public care to either start working in growing private healthcare or work abroad. 833 Portuguese doctors moved abroad last year, According to the Medical Association’s statistics.
– We have one of the lowest medical salaries in the EU. We can’t keep our own, says Joana Bordalo E Sá.
Portugal’s government crisis began in 2022 when the Left Party Bloco de Esquerda dropped the Socialist government by not approving the budget. At the new election, António Costa was re -elected from the Socialist Party PS to Prime Minister, but he chose to resign the following year, when the judiciary started a corruption investigation linked to the British mining company Savannah’s extraction of lithium in northern Portugal. The Portuguese lost confidence in the Socialist Party and for the first time in ten years chose a right -wing government.
Right -wing politician Luís Montenegro from the Midnhögeralrians Aliança Democrática became Prime Minister, but after it was revealed that he continued to run a private consulting company, which helped companies do business with the state, he lost a vote two months ago. Montenegro could have resigned and let his deputy take over. Instead, he chose to lead the country towards new elections.
« It’s as if he is trying to play Portugal at a casino, » says historian Rui Tavares, party leader for the Liberal Left Party Livre with 4 of 230 seats in Parliament.
The political crisis has been exploited by it xenophobic populist party Chega which is now Portugal’s third largest party.
– The constant new elections mean that we have become politically unstable, says Rui Tavares when DN meets him in Parliament.
He believes that the healthcare crisis is a consequence of political turbulence.
– In Spain, healthcare employees earn the double. We must raise wages, otherwise the private care that is very expensive for patients will take over.
At one of the tables At the cafe at the public hospital Hospital de São José in central Lisbon, rehabilitation physician Alexandre Barbosa, 45, sips on an espresso. He has not considered leaving the country for higher wages.
– I enjoy in Portugal. Here we have more sun than the rest of Europe, he says and laughs.
He is pleased that right -wing politician Luís Montenegro, who is in the new election on Sunday, promised to raise the medical salary by 300 euros a month if he is re -elected.
– It’s always something, says Alexandre Barbosa.
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