Beatriz Angelo Hospital, in Loures, closed its emergency service to patients referred through the National Institute of Emergency Medicine (INEM) at the start of Saturday night. The situation will continue until Sunday morning and this is due to the increase in the number of users using that sanitary module and the lack of professionals to fill the scales on the weekend. The emergency rooms of other hospitals in the country are also crowded.
The Loures Health Unit has activated the “Network Response of the National Health Service (SNS), which requests the referral of patients, namely via CODU [o Centro de Orientação de Doentes Urgentes do INEM]until 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, to ensure a response to all patients,” the communications office of that hospital applies to PÚBLICO. This situation is due to “an increase in the flow of patients and limitations in completing medical measures for the emergency service,” according to the same source.
The large number of users of the Beatrice Angelo emergency service has increased waiting times far beyond recommendations. According to the portal SNS monitoring, around 10 p.m. on Saturday, 42 users deemed “urgent” (yellow wristband) waiting to be seen. The wait time was 2 hours and 21 minutes, well above the 60 minutes recommended for these cases.
In a worse case, users are considered “too urgent” (orange wrist). There were 13 people waiting to be seen at 3:30 after going through the count. Recommendations for these cases not to exceed the waiting period of ten minutes.
This information is available Online By SNS, it is usually based on the real times of the last 2 hours in each health unit.
According to the same portal, Beatriz Ângelo is not the only hospital in the metropolitan area of Lisbon where waiting times for emergency services are much longer than recommended in the first weekend of December. ‘Urgent’ patients had a waiting time of more than 5 hours at the Hospital de Santa María, in Lisbon, and more than 6:30 at the hospital in Vila Franca de Xira. At Amadora-Sintra and São Francisco Xavier hospitals, in Lisbon, users wearing yellow wristbands had to wait for more than three hours, early Saturday night.
Further north, Santo Antonio Hospital (3:00) in Porto, and Braga Hospital (2:30) had waiting times for “urgent” patients longer than recommended.
PÚBLICO asked INEM if there were more hospitals asking to end referring users to the emergency room, similar to what the hospital in Loures did, but has not yet received a response.
Emily Brontë is a journalist and feature writer specialising in culture, entertainment, literature, and current affairs. She is dedicated to producing clear, accurate reporting that helps readers stay informed about developments in the UK and around the world.
