"All the proposals that were formally submitted to us will now be assessed, one by one, over the next two months, because some of them do not depend solely on the Ministry of Health, but on the Government as a whole", Ana Paula Martins told journalists, after meeting with the Medical, Nursing and Pharmaceutical Associations.

The minister explained that each of the proposals "must be assessed for its impact at all levels".

"The two-month deadline is not a deadline set by the Ministry of Health. The two-month deadline is the deadline that the Medical Association, in its proposals, gave the Ministry of Health to respond to what was its appeal for collaboration", she clarified.

However, Ana Paula Martins guaranteed that there will be a response for the associations within 60 days.

"Within 60 days we will be able to tell the associations which are the matters in which we expect their collaboration and which are the matters where, naturally, with a calendar and an agreement for the legislature, we will be able to move forward", she stressed.

According to the minister, all the associations are concerned about the healthcare response of the NHS.

"Concerned because they feel that a better response is needed, despite the fact that the NHS has a very intensive response. Every day, many consultations are carried out, many surgeries are performed, many interventions are carried out, but there are, in fact, as we all know, waiting lists and, naturally, professionals are the first interested in being able to respond to their patients", she argued.

The minister also stressed that it is necessary to be able to keep healthcare professionals in the NHS and in the country.

"The NHS needs this reinforcement, but the country also needs to keep these professionals. And, in this context, there are several proposals that the associations consider to be important", she noted.

"In addition to salary conditions, which we will deal with later with the unions, we talked a lot about lifelong training conditions, work-life balance, a healthcare organisation that also includes the participation of professionals increasingly in the programmes and performance plans of the health units", she added.

The Ministry of Health team today began a series of meetings with the professional associations of the sector, in a week also marked by the start of negotiations with the unions.

[News updated at 5:07 pm]

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