Austerity is already asphyxiating Portugal’s health system, and recent developments may soon put it in the intensive care unit. The current state of affairs is so serious that for the first time ever, Portugal’s two medical unions and the Portuguese Medical Association have joined forces to bring forward the first national industrial action supported by [...]

I won’t have the privilege of attending the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but I recently had the opportunity to attend a meeting with mass gathering medicine experts chaired by David Heymann at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Around 8 million spectators, 300 000 accredited professionals, and 10 500 professional athletes will be [...]

As a locum GP, I tend to have limited contact with the permanent staff of the practices I work in, and I therefore rely almost entirely on myself to look after my professional development (there is currently no revalidation scheme for doctors in Portugal). Once a year I try to visit and shadow a prominent [...]

In 1960, Portugal’s infant mortality rate was 77.5 deaths per 1000 live births, which is comparable to that of many Sub Saharan African countries today. In 2010, Portugal’s infant mortality rate was 2.5 deaths per 1000 live births, one of the lowest in Europe and in the world.

Does the name Grzegorz Chodkowski ring a bell with you? It didn’t with me until recently. Chodkowski is a Polish doctor who has worked in the UK, and who created an organisation called Medpharm Careers, which claims to be “Europe’s largest international medical jobs fair.” He and his staff came to Lisbon on 31 March, [...]

I did something very unusual for a GP last weekend, which was to attend a conference on a highly specific topic, namely shoulder injuries. GP’s in Europe usually have a well defined mainstream circuit of national and international conferences, but this event was completely outside my comfort zone. None of the speakers were primary care [...]

I’ve recently returned from a medical mission in the Philippines. Despite the frequency of natural disasters striking the country (typhoons, earthquakes, floods) and the reputation for being an extremely unsafe country, it has an enormous natural appeal to me due to my Filipino roots. I was very eager to go this year since the demands [...]

When I first met Andrew Wilner, an American physician, a few years ago, it was the first time I had heard of the word “neurohospitalist.” I obviously knew what a neurologist or a neurosurgeon are, but a neurohospitalist was an absolute novelty, and I have a feeling it is not a well known role in [...]

About 10 months ago I blogged that an exodus of doctors from Portugal would be a sign of Portugal’s worsening economic situation. Medicine has always offered one of the few stable and prosperous careers. Most doctors are still in employment, and our income levels are usually above the national average as many doctors juggle professional commitments in both the public and [...]