The OPP sent a protest to the Office of the Secretary of State of Health regarding the public tender contracting conditions for Psychologists.

Addressed to the Secretary of State of Health, the President of the Ordem dos Psicólogos (OPP), Telmo Mourinho Baptista, contested, on behalf of the OPP, the 4.19 Euros/hour in the scope of the tender for the contracting of technical services in the area of health, under an outsourcing regime. The contracting entity for this contracting is ARSLVT – Administração Regional de Saúde de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo (Regional Health Administration for Lisbon and the Tagus Valley). The OPP defends that these salaries are completely unsuitable, given the nature of the work, responsibility required, continuity needed and the need for a constant professional updating, most of which is economically supported by the psychologists themselves. Even though the OPP believes that the opening of vacancies in the scope of healthcare is admirable, it also believes that these vacancies cannot be obtained at the cost of the practice of contracting values which jeopardise the quality of public services. With the taking of this position, the President also directed his protests to the members of the Government so that they “take measures which restore justice regarding the contracting of these professionals, as we are in the presence of contracting conditions which put at risk the good functioning of the services and which is harmful to its users”.