Hospital administrators demand public disclosure of closed emergencies

The Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators (APAH) this Thursday asked for the publication for users of emergency departments closed during the summer and welcomed the return of information to the National Health Service portal.

In a conversation with Lusa, APAH President Xavier Barreto said that “information must be disseminated as widely as possible to reach people,” but “of course it is important to normalize this information and how it is disseminated.” past.”

Until now, “we have often seen notices posted quite randomly on the doors of emergency services, with information that was not always very reliable or very clear,” the director admitted.

TVI reported this Thursday that the Ministry of Health has asked hospitals not to publish emergency department opening hours, which will be strictly limited during the summer.

Information about which emergency situations have been closed is no longer available online, but on Wednesday Health Minister Ana Paula Martins announced they would be published again.

Saying he was not aware of any internal ministry communications with hospitals, the APAH president said the return of online information about emergency department closures was “very positive news.”

“I believe the riddle was intended to somehow normalize communication by ensuring that all hospitals would now have ULS. [Unidades Locais de Saúde] communicate under the same conditions and in the same way,” but “nothing prevents the dissemination of information, for example, through the website,” explained Xavier Barreto.

“One of the issues that was discussed for almost a week was why the information disappeared from the site and why now we can only get information by phone,” recalled the person in charge.

Over the weekend, the Health Secretary handed over responsibility for preparing the Summer Emergency Restrictions Plan to hospital administrators, showing she was ready to “help”.

“The concerns are quite legitimate, but the legal basis of the Summer Plan regarding restrictions related to emergency situations, as well as at times when there are many holidays with large numbers of tourists and small groups, belongs to the administrators of our hospital, the people appointed and assessed by CRESAP [Comissão de Recrutamento e Seleção para a Administração Pública] with government management skills,” said Ana Paula Martins.

“Every day we send another “email” to contacts so that they can report more unexpected situations, for example due to illness of doctors or service providers who do not show up (…). We communicate with all of them. Where there are more difficulties, we are on that side to help not only with hiring, but also with strengthening the team,” he added.