Changing competitions for new specialized doctors threatens talks, union says

The National Federation of Physicians (FNAM) this Thursday classified the change in competitions for new specialists, announced by the Minister of Health, as “threat to the negotiation process”, since it was made “by default” by medical unions.

Manuel Pizarro announced on Wednesday that the next competition for specialist doctors will follow an institutional model in which each institution hires the doctors it needs, stressing that this model has proven “more capable of attracting and retaining professionals.”

FNAM, in a statement, rejects the manner in which the Minister of Health made this statement and the proposal that he released without first hearing from the medical unions, as this is a labor issue.

According to the federation, thissignificant changeto the format of the competition for the placement of new specialists in the institutions of the National Health Service (NHS).

“The presented solution significantly changes the tender model for the provision of new specialists, with justification for the expected speed of processes and an increase in the capacity of retaining doctors in the SNA,” he emphasizes.

For FNAM, the option of institutional competitions, in which the number of vacancies and the choice of candidates will depend only on the criteria of each institution and its financial capabilities,”will lead to the predominance of local interests over the needs of the national, exacerbating inequalities between regions“.

Moreover, he warns, “this proposal will establish inequality between candidates and institutions“.

“In the first case, since the applicable selection criteria will be different, which will allow favoritismand in the second case, because institutions with big budgets will have big capacity for hiringto the detriment of others who will have fewer recruiting opportunities,” he justifies.

The federation reminds that the current competition model was introduced for exactly the same rationale as the new proposal of the Minister of Health, “which led to the current failure, so FNAM has been asking for an amendment to it for a long time.”

For the National Federation of Physicians, the competition for medical careers, “which is of fundamental importance to ensure the smooth functioning and sustainability of the SNS, as well as to meet the aspirations of new professionals, must maintain a national character and reconcile the needs for assistance of various regions of the country with the fairness and fairness of the selection process “.