Health minister says demand for emergency services has peaked in recent days

Demand for emergency care in hospitals has peaked in recent days due to illnesses “obviously of relatively low severity” but sufficient to cause an imbalance that motivates use of the service, the health minister warned this Wednesday.

The Union of Prehospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH) reported that several ambulances were delayed on Monday due to a lack of stretchers in the emergency department at García de Orta Hospital in Almada, and the situation worsened on Tuesday.

A hospital source told Lusa that there are “no stretchers” in the emergency room, but acknowledged a large influx of patients in recent days, a situation exacerbated by the large number of people who remain in the hospital after discharge, limiting the number of patients. beds for hospitalization of people who arrived on an emergency basis.

According to the same source, the general emergency department at the Setúbal Hospital Center is “closed” to ambulances sent by the Emergency Center to patients “from its area and beyond”, while the department in Barreiro is “closed to ambulances from outside this region.” . . .

Asked about this situation on the sidelines of the conference “The Strategic Importance of the Generic and Biosimilar Pharmaceutical Industry”, the Minister of Health said that in the last “four to five days” there has been an “increase in pressure” due to diseases such as respiratory infections or gastrointestinal disorders, which creates difficulties for the functioning of these emergency organs.

“We need to solve this problem in order to gradually provide it. Today, the SNS Executive Board announced the adoption of a pilot project for the time being (…) to try to facilitate the use of urgency by creating alternatives for the people. this is something we have to do gradually, because this emergency plan has periods of exacerbation, but this is really a chronic disease of our national health service that needs to be dealt with with the help of humanity,” defended Manuel Pizarro.

Manuel Pizarro thanked all the medical professionals who managed to help patients in overcrowded emergency services.

The official recalled that already in the early summer of 2022 there was a peak in demand for the emergency room, which “seems to be repeating itself these days” and said that the authorities are monitoring the situation to “try to give the most effective response.”

“We actually have a problem with overflow of people to the emergency room and we have to respond well to the needs of these people,” he said, emphasizing that the answer “is not to blame people for going to emergency room.” but, on the contrary, “create alternatives” that will be convenient for people.

Manuel Pizarro spoke about the “Call Early Save Lives” pilot presented this Wednesday by the SNS Executive Board in the Povoa de Varzim / Vila do Conde group of health centers “where everyone has a family health team and where everyone, or almost all family health facilities are Model B.”

“We have created a new model of access to care, that is, we will try to make sure that people who go to the emergency room without a medical indication to go to the emergency room, make an appointment on the same day or in the morning of the next day and that is simple,” he explained.

Asked when the project would be expanded, the minister said: “Before we decide to expand it to other parts of the country, we expect it to serve the people better.”

The minister believes that people who seek primary health care will be better treated, and at the same time, those who still have to go to the emergency department will also be better treated because there will be less overcrowding in the emergency department.