The main health service workers´union claimed an overall strike rate of 80% today with all non-emergency patients being turned away.
The nurses´ union spokesperson said that the strike at Lagos Hospital was solid. Speaking to journalists, Nuno Manjua took stock of the figures during the morning and said that "the workers at the hospital in Lagos are 100% out on strike, Portimao this morning was close to 90% and the hospital in Faro was close to 80%."
Rosa Franco from the Civil Service Union of the South said that her members in public administration withdrew their labour in three hospitals, those that are part of the Hospital of the Algarve Group - Faro, Portimão and Lagos - the overall rate was around 85% to 90%.
According to Nuno Manuja the strike was highly visible across the Algarve, and that scheduled consultations have been resheduled wherever possible. Most people that turned up to one of the hospitals today, unless needing emergency care, were sent home.
"In the operating room only emergency surgeries were carried out - the strike is having a big impact," said Manjua, adding that today´s strike "is an action by and for all health professionals, not just nurses, it is a day of struggle for healthcare in the Algarve."
"There is lot of difficulty in terms of accessibility to health care for people, whether for primary care or for care in hospital, precisely because there is lack of professionals, materials and medication. It is a completely untenable position and there is mounting chaos in the Algarve while the main culprits are twiddling their thumbs, rather than urgently finding solutions to these problems."
Manjua and other workers´ representatives say that there are 1,000 unfilled posts in the Algarve healthcare system including Doctors, nurses, and technical and diagnotic assistants.
Rosa Franco added "today´s strike, especially the high turnout from the administrators´union of 85% to 90%, is significant and demonstrates the displeasure of health professionals at what is happening within the Hospitals of the Algarve Group and within the Regional Health Service management."
Workers are also complaining that there are not enough people in the health service to cover shifts, so a dangerous culture of double shifts is becoming the norm.
The union is angry and saddened by the lack of recruitment of additional workers as existing workers are working many double shifts to compensate, a situation that can not continue if patient care is the first responsibility of the service.
The government says everything is just fine and that new staff are on the way, despite the peak summer period nearing its end and deamnd will soon slacken.
Some say that the Minister of Health had no intention of filling the missing posts in the Algarve as part of the traditional marginalisation of the region by government, but we couldn´t possibly comment. Minister Paulo Macedo´s claim to fame so far is recruitment of Doctors from Cuba at a far higher cost than a local Doctor would have been.
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