The increase in respiratory diseases is causing greater pressure on hospital emergencies, with many having waiting times longer than recommended.
Flu cases are increasing pressure on the National Health Service and worsening waiting times in emergency rooms. Lisbon and the Tagus Valley continues to be the most critical region.
The peak of the epidemic is only expected to be reached next week, but cases of flu patients continue to increase.
And the growing trend continues in the transmission of respiratory infections.
According to the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, more than 7,500 cases of flu have been diagnosed since September, 57 of which ended up in intensive care.
In the week from December 15th to 21st, the institute recorded 1265 positive cases.
Situations that cause greater pressure in hospital emergencies, mMany with waiting times longer than recommended.
According to the National Health Service Portal, the wait for urgent patients, screened with a yellow bracelet at the Amadora-Sintra hospital, exceeded 2 pm. At half past ten in the morning it dropped to around 12 o’clock.
At that time there was also a patient with an orange bracelet with a waiting time of two and a half hours for the first observation. In this case and according to the Manchester triage criteria, the patient should be seen in less than 10 minutes.
By mid-morning, at Garcia de Orta urgent patients had to wait more than two and a half hours for their first observation. At Beatriz Ângelo in Loures and the wait was over four hours. And at the Nossa Senhora do Rosário hospital in Barreiro, the wait was more than two hours.
The Directorate-General for Health advises vaccination against flu and Covid-19, the use of a mask and not exposure to the cold for long periods of time.
The Ministry of Health asks anyone who has symptoms to first call the SNS 24 line before going to a hospital so as not to overload emergency rooms
