Manuel de Almeida / LUSA
The Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, accompanied by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins
At Pedro Hispano Hospital alone, urgent patients waited more than 12 hours for their first observation. It is not unforeseen, assures FNAM.
The last days of the year are marked by the reinforcement of crisis in the National Health Service (SNS)in several hospitals.
This Thursday, Christmas Day, Portimão, Santarém, Vila Franca de Xira, Caldas da Rainha and Setúbal did not even have emergency gynecology and obstetrics services. All closed.
Early in the morning, at Hospital Fernando Fonseca (Amadora-Sintra), a patient with a yellow bracelet was waiting 2 p.m. to be treated in general emergencies; with a green bracelet, it was expected to wait 18 hours, reports .
This Friday, at Pedro Hispano Hospital (Matosinhos), patients classified as urgent were waiting early in the morning more than 12 hours for first observation in general emergencies.
These closures and these numbers are not an “unforeseen event”: they are a “political choice”, according to Joana Bordalo e Sá.
The president of FNAM – National Federation of Doctors recalls that Luís Montenegro and Ana Paula Martins “knew for months that winter would arrive”.
It’s not the fault of time tolerance, vacations, days off or the flu. There are no people, there is a lack of human resources, warns Joana in
“Professionals – doctors, nurses, health technicians, everyone – do what they can and what they can’t. Now, what they can’t do is increase their teams because there are no more professionals. And this is what, on a daily basis, throws doctors into exhaustion and At this time of year we always know it’s worse“, analyzes the FNAM leader.
“The truth is that Luís Montenegro and Ana Paula Martins knew for months that winter would arrivethat Christmas and New Year would arrive, and they did nothing to plan what is necessary, namely to have more doctors in the NHS“, he accuses.
Joana Bordalo e Sá even talks about “chaos” on the SNS, he warns of the Government’s “propaganda maneuvers, charm operations” and suggests: “The Minister of Health should go to the emergency room to see the patients and see the exhaustion in which the professionals are working”.
