The Hospital de Santo António, in Porto, defends the creation of another heart surgery center in the region, claiming to have the necessary technical skills. Currently, patients are referred to Vila Nova de Gaia, Hospital de S. João, in Porto and, a month ago, also to Braga.
Four hospitals in the North say that there are heart patients at risk because of waiting lists and, for this reason, they have written to the Minister of Health to issue the warning. THE considers that the current referral network is adequate.
The Santo António Hospital, in Porto, Vila Real, Matosinhos and Penafiel want to inform the guardianship about the panorama of cardiac surgery in the North Region.
The letter to the minister will be, delivered in the next few days and lean over about the waiting list of patients with heart problems requiring surgery or aortic valve implantation.
Currently, users are referred to the centers in Vila Nova de Gaia and Hospital de S. João, in Porto, and a month ago also to the one in Braga, opened to help reduce this list
Hospital de Santo António believes there is room for another center in the north. He says he is prepared with technical skills and infrastructure and does not understand why he cannot embrace the challenge. Last year it referred 250 patients.
There are patients who die while waiting
To DN, the director of the cardiology service at Santo Antônio, André Luz, It even says that there are patients who die while waiting or suffer further complications.
An opinion from the College of Surgery Specialty Cardiothoracic surgery of the Medical Association considers that the network that Portugal now has, which recently introduced Braga and Faro, is suitable for the country.
Contacted by SIC, Hospital de Gaia says it currently has 171 patients awaiting heart surgery with an average waiting time of just over two months.
Hospital de S. João has not sent its numbers so far. Penafiel Hospital says it has no intention of being a center, but considers that, whenever technical and quality criteria are met, possible reinforcement can help in responding to patients.
