According to Francisco Miranda Rodrigues, the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, confirmed her and the Government's willingness to fulfill what they had already assumed in the Government Program to strengthen "the response that the National Health Service (SNS) gives in the area of psychology, which is very small and urgently needs to be strengthened".

"There was an opening, but more than an opening, there was a reaffirmation of a commitment to this willingness on the part of the Ministry of Health to move forward with these contracts and, therefore, let's hope that this is what will happen and that it happens more in the short term than in the long term", the president of the Portuguese Psychologists' Association (OPP) told Lusa at the end of the meeting with the new ministerial team of the Ministry of Health.

For the OPP, it is urgent to double the number of psychologists in the SNS, proposing the hiring of 300 in one year, and at least 100 by the end of 2024, for the psychology services of the Local Health Units (ULS).

"Today, with just over 300 psychologists for all health centers in the country and more than half of the Portuguese without access to services provided by psychologists, it is critical and essential that this number be doubled urgently", says the Order in the document that led to the meeting convened by the minister.

To this end, the organization argues that it is necessary, immediately, to approve the Organizational Development Plans of the ULS, so that they can proceed with the hiring already planned for this year.

The president explained that his concern was to bring to this meeting the contributions that psychologists can make to solving social and health problems that people feel.

"One of them, for example, even affects health professionals themselves in terms of the organization of services, the organization of the SNS, and the well-being and motivation of professionals", he stressed.

In this sense, one of the proposals presented, already foreseen in the organic structure of the SNS Executive Directorate and which he said he hopes to see implemented, is to have a strategy for the bonding and motivation of health professionals, through a permanent, systematic action on well-being and on their motivation based on management models informed by scientific evidence.

"It was also something that we confirmed to be the will of the Minister to respond positively and to move forward within the scope of the political action of this Government", he added.

The OPP also defended the immediate operationalization of the regulation on professional internships for access to the profession in the SNS, with a minimum of 100 internships per year, already meeting the goal in 2024.

"Until today, it has been a problem for professionals to do their professional internships (...) and there is also a willingness and a commitment here not to stop the process that had already been started by the previous Government to be able to launch a program within the SNS itself that allows professional internships to be carried out annually with a reasonable number that contributes to training young professionals within the SNS", said the president.

Another proposal presented by the OPP was the conclusion, by June, of the reorganization and creation of autonomous psychology services in the ULS, according to the regulations in force and following the model agreed with the Executive Directorate.

Francisco Miranda Rodrigues said that a review with a new meeting with the supervisory authority was scheduled for the end of June.

Read Also: ULS need means to hire psychologists in the face of the "enormous shortage" (Portuguese version)