It has also emerged that 28 health workers at the Portimão Hospital are waiting to find out if they might have contracted tuberculosis after being exposed for over a month to a patient with the disease.
Online news platform Sul Informação reports that the nurses have been waiting to be screened for over three months after coming into contact with a patient with the contagious disease.
The Portuguese Nurses Union has said that workplace health checks “are not working” for the Algarve’s health professionals, and that in some cases routine exams have yet to be carried out.
This matter was brought up by the Union in a meeting with PS socialist MP Miguel Freitas and who, according to the report, has taken the matter to the Health Ministry.
As well as the lack of regular medical follow-ups for the Algarve’s health professionals, MP Freitas is also said to have taken another hot topic for the region’s nurses to Parliament – that of levelling out the salaries of recently-hired nurses with those of nurses who were already working for the Algarve’s public health service.
This latter topic was one of the main motivators behind the nurses’ strike last November.
The Algarvian MP is due to confront Health Minister Paulo Macedo with the afore-mentioned matters.