(dr) Cape Verde Ministry of Health
Ana Paula Martins, Minister of Health, visits hospital in Cape Verde
Anesthetics do not reach the African country due to boats stopped in Lisbon. Reduced or suspended surgeries.
The Minister of Health of Cape Verde stated on Monday that the country faces delays in the arrival of anesthetics, held up in Lisbon due to stormsforcing the reduce scheduled normal surgeries.
“We continue to perform surgeries, particularly emergency ones. It turns out that Cape Verde is facing a transport problem because of the recent storms that hit Portugal and prevented the arrival of the boat with the anesthetics supplied by the National Pharmaceutical Products Company (Emprofac)”, said Jorge Figueiredo, in a statement from the Ministry of Health.
According to the governor, “the boats are stopped in Lisbonunable to circulate”.
“We are waiting for them to arrive in the next few days, but until then, good management indicates that we must maintain stock and ensure that emergencies are handled“, he pointed out, stating that normal surgeries will be reduced or suspended until reschedulingwhich will be carried out based on medical criteria.
“If the ports in Portugal return to normal, we will be able to have the product in five to six days“, he reaffirmed.
Since the end of January, Portugal has faced a series of storms that caused heavy rain, winds, floods, material damage and deaths in several regions, leading the Government to declare a calamity situation in dozens of municipalities and to announce support packages for economic and social recovery.
The meteorological situation also resulted in interruptions to essential services, power cuts, floods, destruction of infrastructure and transport constraints, with significant impacts on ports.
