Waiting times for emergency patients in Amadora Sintra have reached more than 12 hours

The average waiting time for emergency patients in hospitals in the Lisbon region at 7:20 am this Sunday ranged from more than 12 hours in Amadora Sintra to an hour and a half in García de Horta.

The data presented on the National Health Services Portal relates to the average waiting time for care over the last two hours, and the number of patients presented illustrates the number of people currently waiting for care after screening.

According to the SNS portal consulted by Lusa, both the number of patients waiting in the emergency department and the waiting time are shorter than in the last few days of this week, when the average time reached 18 hours.

At the Fernando Fonseca Hospital (Amadora Sintra), the waiting time for patients classified as urgent (yellow bracelet) was 12 hours 52 minutes, while the recommended time is 60 minutes, with 36 patients waiting at 7:20 am.

At the emergency department of the San Bernardo hospital in Setubal, the waiting time for emergency patients was nine hours and 52 minutes, with one patient wearing a yellow bracelet during this time.

At Beatrice Angelo Hospital, waiting times were two hours and six minutes, with 15 people classified as emergencies.

At the general emergency service of the García de Orta Hospital in Almada, 34 people with a yellow bracelet were waiting, with a waiting time of one hour and 32 minutes.

At Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, the average waiting time was two hours and 22 minutes, with a person wearing a yellow bracelet in the central emergency department at the time.

According to the data, a person with a yellow bracelet was waiting at the Sao Jose hospital in Lisbon, the waiting time was one hour and 54 minutes.

In Viseu, at the San Teotoniu hospital, waiting times for emergency patients were nine hours and 49 minutes, with 18 patients awaiting care after triage.

In the Porto region, at Sao Joao Hospital, the average waiting time for emergency patients was two hours and seven minutes, with 10 people wearing a yellow bracelet.

At the Santo Antonio hospital in Porto, the waiting time was nine hours and 49 minutes, with 18 people wearing the yellow bracelet.

This Sunday, 193 health centers will be open to respond to non-emergency acute illnesses, and 187 units will be open with extended hours on New Year’s Day and Tuesday, according to the Department of Health.

The ministry says that in the event of a non-emergency acute illness, the use of alternatives available to emergency services, such as health centers and SNS 24 digital services, “contributes to reducing the burden on emergency services in hospitals at the expense of services that can be provided elsewhere in the National Health System.”