The Regional Secretary for Health said today that the Government is making an unprecedented investment in primary health care, increasing the number of general practitioners and enhancing home care.

In his speech delivered at the opening session of the 11th General Practitioners Symposium, Miguel Correia said that these areas provide an important contribution to the sustainability of the health system, since they decrease the pressure on emergency services and hospital care.

Today, there are more family doctors and the situation has improved with the coming of eight Colombian doctors , who are doing a good job, providing support to those who need a doctor and the four new doctors who have completed their specialty.

And yet more doctors are needed and this situation will continue to happen in the future given the number of expected retirements that will channel all the new doctors in training.

In response to those who mention the existence of solutions at a national level, the Secretary for Health said that despite the granting of incentives and administrative exceptions, it has not been possible to fill the available positions. Moreover, the possible return of retired doctors is not a certainty, as such did not happen when there was no impediment.

On the other hand, the solutions based on contracts with private entities usually represent increased costs to the State.
According to Miguel Correia, the solution lies in the hiring of foreign doctors and the creation of a financial incentive for extending the list of users under a collective labour agreement.

The sustainability of the health system can also be achieved through compliance with clinical guidelines that have been published by the Directorate General of Health nationwide and endorsed by the Regional Directorate for Health. These rules concern the standardisation of prescription, whether in complementary means of diagnosis and therapy or in medication.

"We do not ask for the reduction of the level of demand in the diagnosis or treatment, we only intend to avoid duplication and redundancy, clinically dispensable, or the persistent use of new medicines whose therapeutic success is not yet evidenced, when there are other first-line drugs with lower costs," said the Secretary for Health.