“We are seeing a participation rate of around 70%, with almost 100% in intensive care services and inpatient pneumology and medicine 3 at Faro Hospital,” said Alda Pereira, regional leader of the Algarve for the Portuguese Nurses Union (SEP).
At a press conference held at the entrance of Faro Hospital, Alda Pereira told journalists that “the strike is having a significant impact” on hospitals and health centers in the region of the National Health Service.
“In the central operating room of Faro Hospital, out of the 10 nurses who should be working, four are on strike, and at the Southern Rehabilitation Center, there is 100% participation,” she detailed.
Nurses were present this morning at the entrance of the Faro hospital unit where they placed two banners that read “1,000 nurses are missing in the Algarve,” painted with hands symbolizing the 2,000 that are missing in the region.
The two-day strike called by the Portuguese Nurses Union at the ULS of Algarve, which manages the public hospitals of Faro, Portimão and Lagos and the health centers, started this morning and will continue until Friday afternoon.
The strike aims to protest against what the SEP says is “the deterioration of working conditions for nurses in the Algarve, whether in hospital care or health centers.”
Algarve nurses are also demanding payment for overtime hours on public holidays, “with an hourly rate that cannot be paid as if it were normal work,” concluded the SEP union leader.
