The Regional Secretary for Health visited the São José healthcare unit at the Ponta Delgada Healthcare Centre on Wednesday to become acquainted the activities carried out by the Colombian doctors recently hired by the Regional Health Service.
For about a month, the eight Colombian doctors had the opportunity to learn about the operation of healthcare units in several aspects. They will now start to see patients without supervision.

Miguel Correia said that “the assessment is very positive” and a patient who had an appointment with one of these doctors on Wednesday confirmed that he had been well attended.
 
The Regional Secretary for Health also said that regardless of a new assessment that may take place within a few months, the results are positive and serve the purposes of the Regional Government which is “to provide a general practitioner to those who do not have one.”

Miguel Correia said that the Government intends to hire more foreign doctors because there is a shortage of 22 general practitioners in Ponta Delgada, Ribeira Grande and Angra do Heroísmo. Despite the efforts to train new doctors, they will not be sufficient to cover the shortage of doctors which will be aggravated with the expected retirements in coming years. If we do not rely on doctors from other countries, there will be the same shortage of 22 doctors in the Azores by 2020.

Another solution is currently in the table of negotiations of the Collective Labour Agreement which is the creation of an incentive for general practitioners so that they extend the lists of patients. This incentive measure includes the allocation of a salary supplement according to the number of patients in addition to their regular list of patients.

With regard to the issues that have arisen in the press concerning the competence of the foreign doctors recently hired, the Regional Secretary for Health reiterated that while they were still in Colombia they were evaluated by professors from the University of Porto, after which they took the examination required by the Portuguese Medical Association and were granted the respective medical licence to practice.

Miguel Correia said that it is essential to provide doctors to those who need them whether it is an elderly person, an adult, a child or a pregnant woman. “It is more important to be followed by a foreign doctor, who is fluent in Portuguese, than not to be followed-up.”

The Healthcare Centres will have the possibility of assigning to these new doctors the task of monitoring adult health, which makes up 80% of the consultations.
However, this situation does not change the fact that this activity may be extended to all patients.