The SNS 24 line is defective. The Ministry of Health takes measures to respond to the “sudden growth” of calls – Observer

The SNS 24 line is under severe stress and there have been reports of failures or long delays in responding in recent days. The situation was reported before Three days, There is tow days Also this Sunday, the Observer heard reports from users who were nearby Seven hours waiting to attend to. In the face of these failures by the observer, the Department of Health’s Shared Services (SPMS) – which operates the SNS 24 line – speaks of “the growth very sharp and surprising On-line ordering” and announcing new measures to avoid service interruptions. But they do not acknowledge or identify defects.

Despite acknowledging this increase in demand and announcing measures to respond to this same growth, at no time did this Department of Health service admit – in the response sent to the observer – that it was in a pre-ruptured or malfunctioning state. SPMS even says that the “set of actions” they have taken in cooperation with the DGS and operator Altice Portugal are in favor of “Continue to respond with qualityThis assumes that they are precautionary measures so that the system does not fail when, in fact – as well mentioned SIC this Sunday – These are reactive measures because the service is far from its usual efficiency.

The new announced actions pass, for example, “Review some algorithms to increase their efficiency” and for “wider adoption of automated attendance solutions”. In the same list of measures, “New opening call centers To take advantage of the human resources available in other regions”, SPMS revealed that these “call centers” have already opened in Coimbra during this week” and are “preparing to open more in other locations, specifically in January in Beja”.

At the same time, the Ministry of Health will invest in “training and recruitment of new professionals, currently totaling about 5,000, mostly nurses, but also psychologists, pharmacists, dentists, administrative staff, Portuguese sign language interpreters and medical students from the sixth grade”.

The SPMS ensures “the intensification of these interventions, especially those of a technological nature, during the Christmas season”. But they believe that “after Christmas the pressure on the line will continue to increase”, hence the continued “adopting of all emergency measures that contribute to maintaining the quality of service”.

SPMS does not mention the number of missed calls, but it does reveal a large number of responses given by the SNS 24 line. 224606 test requests To Covid-19, from them 87857 last week (12,390 Christmas Days alone),” the note states. Also on the issue of temporary announcements with protective isolation (DPIP), the SPMS added that “this month of December (days 1 to 25) 24164184 were issued by SNS, of which 64,959 were last week (9584 only on Christmas Day)). “