Mário Cruz / Lusa
This Saturday, emergency patients are waiting an average of nine hours and 29 minutes to be seen at Hospital Amadora-Sintra and eight hours and 19 minutes at Beatriz Ângelo, in Loures. Yesterday, the wait reached 2:30 pm, in Almada.
Data made available on the SNS Portal indicate that, shortly after 12:30 pm this Saturday, they were waiting for treatment at the central emergency department of Hospital Fernando Fonseca (Amadora-Sintra) 41 urgent patients, with an average waiting time of nine hours and 29 minutes.
In this health unit, very urgent patients (red bracelet) waited an average of 51 minutes, while less urgent patients (green bracelet) waited 15 hours and 52 minutes for care.
These data refer to the average waiting time for care in the last two hours and the number of patients presented includes those awaiting first care, after screening, and test results.
At Beatriz Ângelo Hospital, in Loures25 patients with a yellow bracelet (urgent) waited an average of eight hours and 19 minutes in the central emergency room, while the wait for very urgent patients (red bracelet) was five minutes.
The 17 least urgent patients (green bracelet) had to wait, on average, 11 hours and ten minutes.
At Santa Maria Hospital (Hospital Center Lisbon North), eight urgent patients waited an average of four hours and one minutethe very urgent 32 minutes and the less urgent about one hour and 19 minutes.
This Friday, urgent patients (yellow bracelet) are waiting at the general emergency department of Hospital Garcia de Orta, in Almadawas from 14 hours and 30 minutes.
SNS needs explanations
The SNS Executive Board calls on the population to always call SNS Line 24 [808 24 24 24] before going to an emergency room. However, those in emergencies in Portugal, with there even being cases of users sent by SNS24 to closed emergencies.
O Socialist Party urgently wants to hear from the executive director of the SNS about the situation in the emergency room, considering that the Government has shown itself incapable of resolving a “crisis that took hold in the summer”.
“The PS will call the executive director of the SNS and the administration of Shared Services [do Ministério da Saúde] to Parliament. We consider that access to hospital emergencies in certain regions of the country remains in crisis, a summer nightmare that also took over the winter”, said the PS deputy João Paulo Correiain statements to the Lusa agency.
João Paulo Correia considered that the problems with access to emergencies that have occurred in recent days – such as the referral of patients to closed emergencies – show that “the Government and the ministry have clearly been unable to develop measures to respond” to the situation in the SNS.
Among the criticisms made against the Government, the PS deputy stated that the obligation to connect to SNS24 before accessing emergency services was “a wrong measure” and that “it was not well prepared by the Government”.
The PS deputy also expressed concern about “the catapults that the Government is doing across the country on the boards of directors of many hospitals”, including that of the Local Health Unit (ULS) of Lezíria, dismissed this Friday .
“Provoking resignations from administrations that are in office in the middle of winter, in the middle of a crisis in access to emergency services, is repeating a mistake that cost the SNS and many citizens a lot and that was committed by the Government when it forced the fall of the previous executive director of the SNS at the door of summer”, he warned.
Asked whether, given this criticism of the Government, the PS does not also intend to call the Minister of Health to Parliament, João Paulo Correia stated that the executive director of the SNS, Antônio Gandra d’Almeida“has guided its stance by silence or very vague or even alarmist words“.
“I believe that it is, at this moment, first of all, time to ask for responsibilities from the executive director of the SNS, who has a fundamental role here in coordinating access to hospital emergencies, and the organization of hospital emergencies itself”, he said, adding that, due to the hearing of António Gandra d’Almeida, the PS will consider whether to also ask to hear Ana Paula Martins.
Six emergency rooms closed
Five emergency services are closed this weekend, in pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics.
The information available on the SNS portal indicates that the following emergencies will be closed: Obstetrics at the Hospital de PortimãoGynecology and Obstetrics at the Hospital de Vila Franca de XiraPediatrics at Hospital Beatriz Ângelo (Loures), Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hospital das Caldas da Rainha and Gynecology and Obstetrics at Hospital Santo André (Leiria).
According to , despite the SUS Portal listing the health care unit as open, Chavesthe pediatric emergency department at this unit will also be closed.
There will still be services operating with restrictions.
Reserved for internal emergencies and cases referred by the Urgent Patients Guidance Center (CODU) of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) and by the SNS24 line (808242424) will be the Hospital de Cascais Dr. José de Almeida, between 00h and 24h, in the areas of Gynecology and Obstetrics, as well as Amadora/Sintra, in Pediatrics (00h – 08h and 20h – 24h) and in Gynecology and Obstetrics (00h – 24h).
The Gynecology and Obstetrics emergency department at Hospital São Francisco Xavier (00h – 24h), Beatriz Ângelo, Hospital de Abrantes, Hospital de Santa Maria and Centro Materno Infantil do Norte will be in the same situation, at the same time.
The Gynecology and Obstetrics emergency department at Garcia de Orta (Almada) will only receive cases referred by CODU/INEM, between midnight and midnight, as will the Hospital de São Bernardo, in Setúbal.
In total, around 190 emergency rooms will be open.
It was learned this Saturday that the Pediatric Emergency Service and Delivery Unit at the hospital in Beja will be closed between 8am on Tuesday and 8am on Wednesday (December 31st and January 1st).
