Hospital D. Estefania is seeing an average of one hundred more patients per day due to the closure of the pediatric emergency department, and the situation will be worsened with the nightly closure of the Amadora Sintra service, which is a cause for concern.
The situation was reported to Lusa by João Estrada, director of the department of pediatrics at the Central Hospital University of Lisbon (CHULC), which is part of D. Estefânia, a pediatric hospital with the largest pediatric emergency care in the country.
The pediatrician expressed concern about “the care of children, especially the seriously ill, who should be a priority” due to the progressive increase in the number of patients after the closure of pediatric emergency departments in hospitals around D. Estefania due to the lack of doctors to fix the scales.
“So far we have been able to respond well to this increase in patients without long queues,” said João Estrada, expressing concern about the overnight closure of the pediatric emergency department at Fernando Hospital starting next week. da Fonseca (Amadora Sintra), the second largest in Lisbon.
He warned that “despite the differentiation of the Don Estefania Hospital, all hospitals will at some point have limitations and will have to prioritize how they will admit patients and how they will have a faster route that will not put the most vulnerable patients in a difficult situation.” risk.” serious”, which are the “first serious problem”.
“We are concerned, but as doctors, and especially pediatricians, we want to continue to provide the best care to pediatric patients in the country,” he assured.
To respond to the increase in demand, João Estrada said that gradually some changes are being made to the way of working to ensure that “no patient at potential risk to his life is lost along this screening path between hospitals.”
The doctor explained that public opinion needs to understand that when a patient classified as green (less urgent) is told his appointment will take a few hours, it is because priority will be given to more seriously ill patients.
Asked whether the closure of the pediatric emergency department at the Fernando Fonseca Hospital was a surprise, João Estrada replied that “unfortunately, the surprise was not that big because there were a constant number of closures.”
“What we do not accept and do not even want to think is that the Don Estefania Hospital will ever close its emergency department,” emphasized João Estrada, asserting: “We are here to help all children, we want to be there, but we will have conditions, especially taking into account the severity of the patients.”
The person in charge left a letter of gratitude to the medical and nursing team, as well as to all medical workers at the D. Estefania Hospital.
“Until now, people have felt an ethical obligation to help people as best they can, but the reality is that we, like all hospitals, are experiencing some capacity challenges.”
“I think there is a missionary spirit in pediatrics, and Dona Estefania Hospital is the largest pediatric hospital in the country and does not want to stop being so. Now, this whole somewhat over-reliance on emergency care, which unfortunately has been going on in the country for longer, is causing the hospital’s care to be highly differentiated in areas where it is unique in the country, namely pediatric surgery and neonatal surgery,” he noted. .
On the other hand, he said the hospital could not expand its waiting list because it was “systematically overwhelmed by urgency.”
“When we talk about pediatric emergency care, we talk about emergency medical care,” he said, stressing that at the moment the D. Estefania Hospital, especially at night, “is the only hospital in the country open below Coimbra.” .
A source at CHULC told Lusa that the hospital center was able to provide all of these measures “despite a four-month wait for the Clinical Director due to the impasse at the SNS Executive Directorate.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.