Abstract

RIBEIRO, Mariana et al. Family medicine: quo vadis?. Rev Port Med Geral Fam [online]. 2024, vol.40, n.1, pp.95-96.  Epub Feb 29, 2024. ISSN 2182-5173.  https://doi.org/10.32385/rpmgf.v40i1.13613.

Article 206 of the 2022 State Budget Law provides for hiring doctors without a specialty to perform functions intended for specialized doctors in General and Family Medicine, with a harmful impact of this measure being foreseeable on the Portuguese health system and the health of the Portuguese population. Family doctors create a therapeutic alliance in the doctor-patient relationship and take care of the health of their users in a comprehensive way throughout their lives. With this law, the government devalues the family doctor’s role and specialized training, discrediting the specialty. We believe that this law represents yet another setback in the path of the specialty of General and Family Medicine, practiced by highly differentiated professionals. Through the lens of family doctors, instead of what is referred to in Article 206, the government’s focus should be on hiring enough family doctors for health centers, drastically reducing the bureaucracy to which they are subject, simplifying indicators performance-oriented towards true benefits in the health of users and hiring other professionals for the teams in sufficient numbers to respond to needs.

Keywords : Family physicians; Primary health care; Population health management.

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