The government is to pay incentives doctors to work in the Algarve’s public health service hospitals.
Tax relief and pay bonuses are on the cards as part of a plan to halt the devastating decline in the number of Doctors who are willing to move to the Algarve and work in the national health service.
The Minister of Health today announced that his Ministry will provide 'monetary and fiscal’ incentives to doctors who choose to settle in 'inland and peripheral areas,' including the Algarve region.
Minister Paulo Macedo visited Faro hospital today and said the incentive system already provided for in the 2015 State Budget "should be put in place shortly."
"The state budget contains a provision that encourages doctors to settle in the interior. Our purpose is to use the legislative amendment that exists in order to award these incentives, in some specialties and in some regions there will be an extra incentive to secure doctors,' said Macedo.
Dr Nunes sensibly advises caution in projecting any results attributable to these incentive measures and in an report by Sul Informaçao today was quoted as saying, "When the Minister says what exactly these incentives are, and when doctors start to respond to them, we'll then see if they do or not make a difference. I hope so."
Dr Nunes also commented that "... doctors know that if they come here they will work with excellent equipment and have good working conditions. With this, and with some encouragements of a financial nature, I am sure that within three, four or five years, the Algarve will have enough doctors to have a top notch health service."