In January 2022, Portalegre Hospital was tasked by the Health Care Regulatory Authority (ERS) to provide “continuous” ambulance and medical resuscitation (VMER) service following the death of a child.
The April 13 ERS board decision, published just this Wednesday, requires that users’ right to access health care be guaranteed “promptly and for a time deemed clinically appropriate.”
The report also states that between January 2021 and February 2022, the VMER attached to the Portalegre Hospital was down for “a total of 722 hours and 30 minutes”,60 [horas] of which “only in January 2022.”
On January 28, 2022, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) announced that it had opened an investigation to determine the cause of death of an eight-day-old baby at Portalegre Hospital due to an alleged lack of medical care.
The magazine Sábado then reported the death of an eight-day-old child on January 27 in the Portalegre hospital “due to lack of medical care.”
According to the magazine, “the child’s father requested assistance and firefighters were called at 9:33 a.m.” after the Center for Urgent Care for Patients (CODU) reported that VMER “is not operational at Portalegre Hospital.”
The local health unit of Northern Alentejano (ULSNA) also said at the time that it had opened an investigation to determine “all the circumstances” under which the child died.
In statements to journalists, ULSNA clinical director Vera Escoto said the VMER at Portalegre Hospital was down for about seven hours on Thursday due to the absence of a doctor.
According to Vera Escoto, the hospital department “made every effort” that day to commission the VMER, remembering that it was in the midst of a pandemic and doctors had “several requests.”
“There was a period from 9:00 to 15:40 when the doctor was not there, although everything possible was done to correct the situation,” he noted.
With regard to the stakeholder hearing, ERS also considers that the discussion was preceded by a written stakeholder hearing, and ULSNA and the National Institute of Emergency Medicine (INEM) were invited to speak for this purpose.
“However, after the expiration of the statutory period provided for this purpose, ERS has not received any written representations from interested parties,” the document says.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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