In a letter sent to the Assistant Secretary of State and Health, António Lacerda Sales, to which the Lusa agency had access, the chairman of the Ordem dos Médicos (OM), Miguel Guimarães, proposes measures for the integration into the labour market of “Ukrainian refugees with qualifications in the field of Medicine”.

To enrol in OM, these doctors will have to have their diplomas recognised. “Now, because this is not a matter within the competence of the Medical Association, it will be up to the Government to find a solution with the universities for the specific recognition of the academic titles of these refugees”.

Contacted by Lusa, Miguel Guimarães said that the letter came after a request from Lacerda Sales in the sense of what can be done to “help integrate these doctors” who are “in a critical situation”.

“They are refugees, they left their family, they left their things behind, they left people fighting for Ukraine, they have to start from scratch and they are being welcomed by several countries and also by Portugal”, he stressed.

For the OM, refugee doctors should only be able to be hired by institutions or units of the National Health Service, guaranteeing that “all their activity is carried out with the presence of an autonomous doctor who, in addition to mastering the Portuguese language, is able to communicate with the refugee doctor”, because they are fluent in Ukrainian or another language that the they are fluent in, such as English, Russian or French.