Doctors working in Portugal’s health service are likely to be spared the recently announced austerity measures that include freezing all new civil service appointments.  The Portuguese Ministry of Finances announced it would freeze all new public administration appointments starting on 1 July, including the admission of doctors into the national healthcare system, as part of a newly announced package of austerity measures required for accelerating the decrease in the country’s budget deficit, which is one of the largest in the Euro Zone (9.4% in 2009).  The Ministry of Health said last week that doctors would be the exception and their appointments would not be halted.   Manuel Pizarro, Secretary of …