António Sarmento, first vaccinated against COVID-19 in Portugal, leaves the direction of the Infectiousology service at Hospital de São João
António Sarmento, first vaccinated against COVID-19 in Portugal, leaves the direction of the Infectiousology service at Hospital de São João
António Sarmento, the first vaccinated against COVID-19 in Portugal, in a ceremony at the end of 2020 that marked the beginning of the largest logistical plan ever implemented in the country, withdrew from the direction of the Infectiology service at Hospital de São João, who was leading 16 years ago.
For the now ex-director, “being a doctor is almost like being in love.” You have to feed the taste. And it was his passion for clinical activity that kept him leading the team for 16 years. “There is no guarantee for or for lack of health, and the intention is to retire.
Although he officially reserved the position on July 15, to be replaced by Maria de Lurdes Santos, he says he wants to continue to pass in the corridors. “It is evident that you continue to be a doctor. I have three more years to stay in the hospital.”
“People have transcended themselves”
The passion for medicine came when he had to decide what to study. He left engineering aside and pursued more than 40 years in the profession. He graduated in two more specialties – clinical pharmacology and intensive care medicine – but it was as an infectious disease specialist that he faced the biggest challenge of his career: managing, on the front line, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “There were many difficult days”, he recalls, without, however, letting himself stand out from the positive aspects: “In that worst phase, people transcended”.
A heart attack after the pandemic
“These were very expensive times. At this stage, we are experiencing the hangover of tiredness,” she says. After the most troubled phase of the pandemic, António Sarmento suffered “a serious heart problem”, a heart attack that required urgent heart surgery and three grafts. “I think it was the stress, clearly. I have no risk factors, but a serious disease. It’s the stress that kills.” Until five days before the incident, the director at the time was still regularly part of night emergency rosters.
Underfunding and “burnout” threaten SNS
At the age of 66 and in the final stretch of the profession, the doctor and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto relate the state of “burnout” that doctors go through with the chronic underfunding of the SNS.
In the opinion of António Sarmento, it is not the salary issues regarding the origin of health professionals, but rather “feeling that they are not in a position to deal more with the concern for their own”.
The former director foresees new pandemics and guarantees that, also for this reason, greater investment is needed in the National Health Service.