About 70% of dentists who work abroad do not intend to return to Portugal, according to data from the Dental Medical Association, which warns that the country forms excess professionals and throws them into precariousness and emigration. According to the Order, one in ten Portuguese dentists is working abroad, a total of 1,500 in 11,000 active professionals.
We are not providing security, remuneration and career conditions. What we are offering in Portugal is a great precariousness for these young dentists. And many of them will go abroad, particularly to countries in Europe, said the staff member, Orlando Monteiro da Silva, in an interview with the Lusa agency.
We are not providing security, remuneration and career conditions. What we are offering in Portugal is a great precariousness for these young dentists. And many of them will go abroad, particularly to countries in Europe, said the staff member, Orlando Monteiro da Silva, in an interview with the Lusa agency.
The vast majority of emigrants who do not even want to return to Portugal indicate that they have better working and living conditions abroad. According to the Employability Study, carried out last year and now published, 60% of dentists working in Portugal work in two or more offices and more than half of those who have been trained for less than a decade work in more than four offices.
The Dental Physicians staff member stresses that working conditions are difficult, especially for younger doctors who work long hours, in several offices at the same time and with large journeys, sometimes within an hour or two of the place of residence. Our younger colleagues, especially those with less than 10 years' experience, have a high level of precariousness, low salaries and no career prospects, and this leads them, in particular, to emigration. It is essential that the society and the candidates of the course of Dental Medicine inform themselves about the conditions of employment that they will find and that they undo this idea that the dental medicine is a profession where it is obtained very well. This is not the case for a long time, says Orlando Monteiro da Silva.
The Dental Physicians staff member stresses that working conditions are difficult, especially for younger doctors who work long hours, in several offices at the same time and with large journeys, sometimes within an hour or two of the place of residence. Our younger colleagues, especially those with less than 10 years' experience, have a high level of precariousness, low salaries and no career prospects, and this leads them, in particular, to emigration. It is essential that the society and the candidates of the course of Dental Medicine inform themselves about the conditions of employment that they will find and that they undo this idea that the dental medicine is a profession where it is obtained very well. This is not the case for a long time, says Orlando Monteiro da Silva.
To the Government, the president of the Order of Dentists recommends and calls for the reduction of vacancies in the seven courses of Dental Medicine existing in Portugal. It seems obvious to me that faculties have to rethink their offer so that we will not continue to train people to invite them to practice outside of Portugal, says the staff member, noting that every year between 600 and 700 new graduates in dentistry leave the courses.
He argues that this figure should be progressively reduced, at least 10 to 15 percent per year, rather than postgraduate training. Colleges themselves know that they are training dentists or for unemployment or, perhaps even more serious, for underemployment, precariousness. A dental practitioner, as a still liberal profession, can rarely be considered unemployed. He is in a serious situation of underemployment, comments the canon of the Dentists.
Portugal has one dentist doctor per thousand inhabitants, when international recommendations point to a professional for 1500 to 2000 inhabitants.
He argues that this figure should be progressively reduced, at least 10 to 15 percent per year, rather than postgraduate training. Colleges themselves know that they are training dentists or for unemployment or, perhaps even more serious, for underemployment, precariousness. A dental practitioner, as a still liberal profession, can rarely be considered unemployed. He is in a serious situation of underemployment, comments the canon of the Dentists.
Portugal has one dentist doctor per thousand inhabitants, when international recommendations point to a professional for 1500 to 2000 inhabitants.
