First they call the SNS Pregnant Line: the anxiety and the “very serious” consequences. Measure applied in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and Leiria.
As pregnant of the Region of Lisbon and Tagus Valleyand the District Hospital of Leiria, will have to to connect from today to Pregnant SNS Line before to resort to urgency Obstetrics and Gynecology hospital.
“This new model for Obstetrics and Gynecology emergencies begins in the pilot phase with the ULS [Unidades Locais de Saúde] of the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region and Leiria and will be reevaluated inside three months”, advances the Ministry of Health, in .
The pilot project may also cover other hospitals from different regions who express interest in participating, as long as they meet certain requirements.
“ULS that want to join voluntarily can do so, which has already happened with those of Gaia/Espinho [Hospital de Gaia]Alto Alentejo [Hospital de Portalegre] and Saint Anthony [Centro Materno Infantil do Norte]. At the end of three months there will be an assessment of the impact, so that the plan can be extended to the entire country”, indicates the guardianship.
In the statement, the Ministry of Health also says that, from January, the ULS of the Peninsula of Setúbal (Almada-Seixal, Arco Ribeirinho and Setúbal) will also join.
The remaining schedule is still being defined and will be “disclosed in due course”, according to a source from the guardianship.
In an ordinance published on Friday in , signed by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, it is informed that they will be glued posters on the door of the Obstetrics and Gynecology emergencies to inform this need for telephone pre-screening, indicating that Only urgent situations will be dealt with.
Telephone pre-screening should preferably be carried out by nurses specializing in maternal and obstetric health, indicates the ordinance, adding that hospitals will use the same algorithms as the SUS Pregnancy/Gynecology Line in in-person emergency screening, which will prevail over telephone screening.
Hospitals will also be able to create their own telephone pre-screening, in direct conjunction with the SNS Pregnancy/Gynecology line, he adds.
But there are exceptions for situations where there is a strong suspicion that they could represent imminent risk to lifenamely the loss of consciousness, convulsions, difficulty breathing, profuse bleeding, severe trauma or very intense pain.
The Government emphasizes the need to adopt measures that promote “a rational way” of channeling the demand for healthcare to the most appropriate locations, removing non-urgent situations from Obstetrics and Gynecology emergencies.
The ordinance also establishes conditions for hospitals that may wish to join this pilot project, such as, for example, having an open hospital consultation for obstetric and gynecological situations at a time adaptable to demand, but open every working day, as well as creating a mechanism for quick scheduling in open hospital consultations, open consultations in Primary Care and regular hospital consultations.
This telephone pre-screening was already foreseen in the Reorganization Plan for the Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics Emergencies presented in October, after in the summer the Obstetrics/Gynecology and Pediatrics Emergencies had once again experienced operational difficulties due to the lack of of specialists to fill rosters, which led to partial closures or restrictions on services.
“Very serious”
Despite the announced exceptions, the Public Service Users Movement (MUSP) is against this measure.
Spokesperson Cecília Sales even classifies this decision as “idiot”, from the pregnant women’s point of view: “The procedure is unbelievable, because we are dealing with pregnant women, who could have a child at any time”.
“Having to notify in advance, by phone, creates anxiety, in pregnant women and families. As if the prediction of a child’s birth were just around the corner. A baby doesn’t have a specific time to be born”, he recalls.
“It’s very easy for those who make the laws and procedures. Easy. But for those who experience things, it is not like that”, continues the MUSP spokesperson, who associates this change with the chronic problem of the lack of health professionals in the obstetrics and pediatrics specialties.
Cecília Sales thinks that this change could have “very serious consequences” and lower the birth rate, at a time when attempts are being made to reverse this drop in the number of births in Portugal: “They complain that little children are not born… And then they announce measures like this.”
