Local Health Units will be able to open centers for non-urgent cases and provide consultations on weekends.
During the winter, Local Health Units will be able to open centers to treat non-urgent patients on the same day and open consultations must be available in all municipalities on weekends and holidays.
These measures are contained in an order published in the Official Gazette of the Union on Friday to organize the response of primary and hospital health care in winter, a time of greatest pressure on emergency services, especially due to the increase in respiratory infections.
“This order puts, for the first time, a health care organization on paper, with a view to preparing for a time of year when it is expected, not only an increase in the number of episodes in emergency services, but also, associated with it, a greater hospitalization rate”, the Secretary of State for Health, Ana Povo, told Lusa.
O document provides for an open consultation servicewhenever possible, in all municipalities on holidays and weekends, in the period between 08:00 and 20:00.
It is also planned opening of clinical care centersin the model that the Local Health Unit (ULS) “deems most convenient” (own/social/municipal/private), in order to respond to acute non-urgent situations on the same day, says the order that comes into force this Saturday.
The ULS must also make the Day Hospital available to users experiencing decompensation for specific diseases, such as heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and cirrhosis.
According to the document, the pre-hospital teams must be released during triage, except in specific situations such as delivery of a critical patient to the emergency roomand ULS must acquire stretchers for patients in external emergency services, but also for those who may be awaiting admission to the ward.
The closure of an external emergency department during the winter must only occur with prior authorization from the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS), “mere information to the National Institute of Medical Emergency is not sufficient”.
If authorization is obtained from DE-SNS for closure, “it must be immediately communicated to INEM and “”, the order further determines.
Regarding the situation of people who remain hospitalized after being clinically discharged, due to lack of a social response, which makes new hospitalizations difficult due to lack of beds, the order indicates that the ULS must provide for the possibility of expanding their respective capacity internally or externally.
“All existing beds in the hospital unit must be operational, and there is a plan to activate them based on demand”, indicates the document, which determines that contingency places must be opened for patients waiting for a place in the ward, preventing its concentration on emergency services and a lack of conditions.
Furthermore, patients who have been clinically discharged, but who remain at the ULS due to lack of social response, must immediately be notified to the Social Security Institute, with “this institution having the duty to guarantee placement in an appropriate institution as soon as possible”.
“It is an order bringing together a series of indicative measures for the ULS to prepare and organize themselves in a better response”, highlighted Ana Povo, highlighting that, despite the various measures adopted to reduce pressure in emergencies, the “objective is not harm the scheduled activity” of hospitals.
The Secretary of State also said that the Ministry of Health is not “completely calm” regarding the winter period, claiming that Portugal has an aging population with a high burden of diseases.
“For months now, the Ministry of Health, the bodies it supervises and the ULS have all been making an effort and working together to have a better winter than last year”, said Ana Povo.
