The National Health Service in the Algarve is paying double or treble the hourly rate to attract doctors to work in regional hospitals.
Diário de Notícias looked at the figures for doctors employed by the HNS and found that some doctors earn more than €50 per hour, when the maximum established by law is €39.
“In order to guarantee the doctors that are needed during the period of tourist influx, the University Hospital of Algarve is paying almost double what the law allows,” reveals the report.
According to the budget laws published a month ago, "during 2018, the maximum hourly rate to be paid for the purchase of medical services can never be higher than the hourly rate provided for in the salary scale applicable to workers who are part of a medical or medical career."
In March of this year, the rate was set at €22 an hour for non-specialists; €26 for specialist doctors, which can go up to €29.21 in poor areas, as is the case in the Algarve.
The same law allows an "exceptional and temporary" 50% that can be added to the hourly rates.
In the Algarve, this "exceptional and temporary" payment has become the norm with some NHS doctors earning over €50 per hour.
Management said that these amounts, "are justified and authorised, taking into account the acknowledged lack of health professionals in vital and crucial areas, to continue to ensure the provision of health care."
Another problem, claims management, is that many doctors are leaving the National Health Service and immediately being contracted back in, as ‘outsourced’ professional, thus enabling a higher hourly rate to be awarded, two to three times what they earned as HNS doctors.
This is not accepted by doctors who say that management would actually save money overall, if it paid more to full-time NHS doctors.
