The Regional Secretary for Health announced today that the Regional Health Service will "soon" hire four General Practice specialists, thus "covering another 7,600 patients, who will now be assisted by a general practitioner."

Speaking at the opening of the 15th Congress of General Practice of the Azores, Luís Cabral stressed that this measure is the result of "a political effort to provide a general practitioner to all Azorean citizens." The initiative aims to "improve the access of 7,600 Azorean citizens to the health system, through the hiring of four newly trained specialists for regional health units."

In addition to the vacancies for the interns who have now completed their internship, the Regional Secretary stressed the S. Miguel Island Health Unit will open "five vacancies for General Practice physician assistant. So, it will be possible to provide a general practitioner to more than 9,500 patients on São Miguel, which will significantly reduce the number of patients without general practitioner."

"This is another measure aimed at improving the Regional Health Service that marks the beginning of a solution that will allow all Azorean patients to be followed up in the area of General Practice," said the government official.

In his speech, Luís Cabral highlighted the "higher incentives compared to those announced by the National Government" as well as "the support and opportunities provided to interns and specialists who choose to work at regional health units." According to him, the shortage of doctors in the Region "is not the Regional Government's fault as it has been said on a regular basis."

The Regional Secretary for Health also revealed "nearly 300 thousand consultations have taken place at regional units in 2015, which clearly evidences that we are improving and providing more general practitioners to Azorean patients."

Mentioning some of the measures implemented by the Regional Secretariat in order to improve the service provided to patients, Luís Cabral also noted the fact that "the emergency services on the smallest islands of the archipelago operate 24 hours a day," thus providing a "response to emergency situations and patient admissions." For the government official, this is a "contribution to the universal nature of the regional health system."

"With these initiatives, we believe that the hiring of new doctors and the doctors who are about to conclude their General Practice internship will ensure the proximity care that should be provided by General Practice," said the Regional Secretary.