The Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital does not accept pregnant women referred by the INEM Emergency Patient Care Center, and it is not yet known when the service will reopen, a source at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Central confirmed to Lusa.
As of this morning, the Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital (MAC) was closed to the Urgent Care Unit (CODU), which at the time had five women in labor, one emergency room and three women awaiting discharge.
“Extracts could appear at any time, in which case it is possible to win some space and thereby reopen the CODU service, but for now there is no such forecast,” said a source at the hospital center, which, in addition to MAC, includes hospitals in San Jose. Capuchos, D. Estefania, Curry-Cabral and Santa Marta.
The same source added that MAC is seeing a “30% increase in births” due to the closure of emergency services at several hospitals: 60 pregnant women were treated in the emergency department on Sunday, 12 more than on the same day in 2022, and served 78 plus 17 on Saturday.
This year, until December 3, the MAC has already carried out 3,383 births, which is 17.4% more than in 2022 (2,881), according to data from the hospital center, which states that the largest number of births was registered in October – 362, which is an increase. 30.2% more. than in 2022, followed by November – 343 (+32.4%), September – 340 (+26.4%), August – 336 (+24.4%) and July – 329 (+23.2% ).
Restrictions on emergency services are also affecting the San Jose hospital, which saw an increase in attendance over the weekend.
“The weekend, which in this case is by nature a quiet day, has been a challenging day with more cases and more severity,” a CHULC source said, noting that about 40 patients are waiting daily for admission. .
On the 8 December holiday, the San Jose hospital admitted 770 patients in the emergency department, 169 more than on the same day in 2022, on Saturday the number rose to 793 (up 79) and on Sunday dropped slightly to 758 ( 102 more). ) .
Every day, about 40 patients wait for a place to be admitted to the San Jose hospital.
Regarding the Santa Maria Hospital, a hospital source told Lusa that there are currently 180 patients in the emergency department, of which 120 are “complex or very complex” cases.
“We have 180 patients circulating in our emergency department, at different stages of the process – in triage, in first observation, awaiting tests, awaiting results, in diagnosis, in hospitalization,” he indicated.
The same source also said 230 children were treated in the pediatric emergency department on Sunday.
“This was one of the largest indicators this year and one of the largest in recent years,” he emphasized.
As for what’s being done to combat overcrowding, the source said the hospital is “trying to get patients through faster,” acknowledging that “wait times aren’t ideal, but they’re not very long yet.”
“This puts a lot of pressure on the service and is sure to lead to unwanted waiting times,” he added.
According to the SNS executive directorate, 33 emergency services “will operate with restrictions this week, and 50 units will operate at full capacity (60%) from 83 locations across the country.
The specialties with the greatest emergency restrictions are general surgery, pediatrics, orthopedics, gynecology and obstetrics, but there are four hospitals that have emergency restrictions on some days on Via Verde AVK, namely: Viana do Castelo, Guarda, Santarem and Garcia. de Horta in Almada.
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.