One-third of anaesthetists trained in Portugal have chosen to go private or move abroad.
Over the past three years, 145 specialist anaesthetists were trained in Portugal with only 99 then joining medical teams at NHS hospitals.
In 2016, the number of trainees that could be taken on for training was raised from 64 to 80 a year in a welcome move to boost overall numbers working in the State sector.
Of those qualifying, a third have eschewed the National Health Service, according to a study published in Acta Médica Portuguesa.
As for the overall boost expected in the country’s public hospitals, ‘if only two-thirds of the new specialists actually contract with the NHS, it will be difficult to achieve the desired three-year increase,’ reads the report.
The head of the Ordem dos Médicos, Miguel Guimarães, regrets that the Ministry of Health continues to sit by and watch as these key professionals leave the country or go private, a serious loss to the NHS.
"The country has to create competitive conditions to retain young physicians in the NHS, and this is not just about pay,” said Guimarães, observing that it can take months for recently qualified doctors to have an NHS job confirmed, "which means many just give up and go elsewhere."
Overall, Portugal’s NHS is short of 541 anaesthetists in NHS hospitals with Vale do Tejo and the Algarve the hardest hit.
The system also is blocking extra-EU applicants due to bureaucracy, see:
'Portugal deterring Doctors from non-EU countries'Portugal deterring Doctors from non-EU countries'
