The Centro Hospitalar do Oeste (CHO) was the subject of two complaints from family members who could not accompany patients, one of whom suffered from autism and died in hospital, leading to the intervention of the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS).
The complaint was filed by the sister of a user who was admitted to the emergency room on October 19, 2023, after being transported by ambulance from the home where he was hospitalized with “flu-like symptoms.”
In the complaint, the sister says she went to the hospital “waiting for the ambulance to arrive” and that the CNO “did not allow her to accompany the user.”
He also claims that in the following days he called the hospital “constantly (sometimes more than 30 times in a row) for information”, the answer was to “wait” and that it was not worth going to the department. .
On October 22, the family was notified that the user “would be discharged and would have to be picked up,” but four days later he was readmitted to the hospital.
The family went to the hospital again, but “they were similarly not allowed to stay with him or explain anything about his autistic condition,” the complaint states.
“No one provided us with information about his medical condition, and they asked us to wait for information from the doctor, emphasizing that there was no point in trying to obtain information by going to the site.”
On October 28, a doctor told the family by phone that the patient had died in the hospital, leaving them “not knowing what he died from” and not being allowed to “say goodbye to him or ask for unction,” he says. complaint.
To this investigation, ERS attached another complaint from a complainant who was not allowed to “accompany a user, his uncle, – with mental problems and thoughts of escape – to the CHO Emergency Service.”
In this case, the family refers to a nurse who “said she would pay attention to the patient and contact the family member when he was discharged.”
The user was subsequently found by his brother in the street, still with the catheter in place.
These two situations prompted an investigation, during which ERS concluded that users’ right to follow-up was not guaranteed and issued a direction to the Western local health unit, in which the CHO has been involved since January this year. .
The guidance is intended for CHOs to adopt internal procedures “necessary to ensure the provision of health care to users with characteristics that further increase the requirements for quality, speed, efficiency and humanity”, taking into account the type of pathology, age or particular vulnerability. .
The ERS also determines that the CHO must guarantee the right to monitor users, “in particular people with disabilities, in situations of dependency and with terminal illness at a late stage and at the end of life”, providing information to family members “within a reasonable period of time” and that in exceptional situations where a decision is made not to take further action, “the reasons are explained.”
It also urges the CHO to ensure that during emergency services and hospital stays, particularly vulnerable users are “appropriately monitored and followed up to monitor for possible changes in their health status.”
The CHO includes the Caldas da Rainha, Torres Vedras and Peniche hospitals, but when contacted by the Luz agency, the administration did not specify which of these units the complaints were directed at.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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