The combination of the economic interests of the Government and the purpose of the Order of Dentists in the future to restrict the number of dentists could cause a drastic reduction of the accessibility of most of its population to oral health care in coming years.
==========================
Asked about the possible recruitment of more dentists to the National Health Service, the State Secretary of Health Manuel Pizarro assured that this is not the strategy of the Ministry of Health. This strategy would mean that we would put the National Health Service (SNS) to compete with a network that already exists throughout the country offices and clinics of dentistry. From the viewpoint of general national interest that would not be a good strategy and would double the investment to substitute cooperation for competition, he argued.
To re-elected president of the College of Dentists, the improvement rates of population's access to oral health care is a top priority, but noted also the excess of dentists as a problem to solve. Unfortunately this leads many hundreds of dentists to have to find other countries to practice and obviously this is a frustration for younger doctors who see great possibilities for the profession in Portugal and this is a major problem, pointed Orlando Monteiro.
For Orlando Monteiro, the problem is solved with the adequacy of the number of vacancies in each of the seven colleges to the real needs of the country, as well as greater investment in colleges and postgraduate courses in Lusophone Countries, where there is a huge shortage of dentists. That colleges are geared more towards quality rather than quantity as for the case today, he added.
* * *
I want to express, first and on behalf of all oral health professionals who still work in the National Health S ervice, the biggest repudiation by the statements and intentions expressed by the State Secretary of Health Manuel Pizarro. This is a completely in opposition to the interests of the population, against all professional public that we still have in the area of oral health and only demonstrates the underlying interest to dismantle what remains of the National Health S ervice and create conditions that oral health is in the hands of private with absolute greed for profit.
More: putting the National Health Service to compete with a network that already exists throughout the country offices and dental clinics would be the best way to promote quality and reduce costs by encouraging the population. The design competition is to avoid an unnatural idea, we all studied the times of socialism in the Soviet Union and we all know what the results were.
Regarding the position of limiting the number of dentists, it is a stand against the Constitution and a clear violation of the aspirations of young people who want to come to practice dentistry in the future, it would be a serious intervention into the market oral health, would seriously undermine the overwhelming majority of its population and would contribute to strengthening the already dramatic social contrasts in access to oral health care.
Portugal, by contrast, is in urgent need of extending the offer to provide oral health services to meet the pressing needs, this is only possible with a still substantial enlargement of the number of dentists in order to reach the most remote regions geographically and contribute to better market regulation assigned to the area of health, contributing to a better quality of services and a significant reduction in costs.
In short, this time there is still a clear lack of dentists in Portugal and the fact that many leave abroad does not contribute to better oral health in Portugal, especially after having been formed at the expense of our taxes.
Better self regulation of the activity and the opening of specialty hospitals and public health centers should be the first priority to take into account both by government and Dental Association.
Does it not occur to any parent stop a child from wanting to become a dentist.
No comments:
Post a Comment