On Tuesday, the Order of Nurses (OE) expressed “massive concern” about the “grave situation” with emergency obstetric services and said care for low-risk pregnant women should be provided by specialist nurses to free up obstetricians.
“The situation we are currently experiencing in emergency obstetric services in Portugal is a restriction of the right to access safe, timely and quality health care for mothers and obstetricians, jeopardizing the well-being of mothers and babies,” said OE President Luis Filipe Barreira to Lusa.
Faced with this situation, the Order of Nurses wrote a letter to Health Minister Ana Paula Martins on Tuesday, asking for her “urgent intervention” and demonstrating its willingness to collaborate with the Health Ministry, as well as the Order of Doctors, to carry out “the necessary reforms in the country’s maternity hospitals,” he said.
Luis Barreira noted that the Health Contingency and Transformation Plan contains two measures that relate to the possibility of expanding the competences of nurses specializing in maternity and obstetric nursing (EEESMO), and the appeal for guardianship was precisely in this sense.
“In essence, we reiterate to the Minister that the care of low-risk pregnant women must be fully provided” by these specialist nurses.
According to the president, this measure “will free up obstetricians so that they can perform other functions, namely, monitoring pathological and risky situations that require their specialized intervention.”
Luis Barreira stressed that the nurses meet the “essential conditions” to work in ordinary maternity hospitals in Portugal, which must comply with international recommendations that promote the creation of such structures within obstetric services.
He argued that the establishment of these centres, also called “low-risk pregnancy care”, would promote “better management of available human resources, greater safety during childbirth” and allow women to receive care at health facilities in their area of residence.
OE highlights that Portugal has a significant number of specialist nurses whose technical and scientific competence is recognised internationally.
“These professionals are qualified to provide immediate, comprehensive care to low-risk pregnant women, allowing for more efficient management of human resources, ensuring more humane and safe births,” he said in a statement.
According to Luis Barreira, the situation that has arisen with the closure of several emergency services in the country “shows the urgent need to reform the network of care for pregnant women.”
He stressed that the goal is not to “close maternity hospitals, but to turn some maternity hospitals into natural birthing centers and then make other resources profitable,” ensuring that access to health care is equitable and of good quality for all women.
The OE believes that “it is time for the Department of Health to act: we cannot leave the NHS hostage to individual sentiments.”
“It is regrettable that many pregnant women are forced to travel to hospitals more than 200 km away from their place of residence instead of being treated in hospitals in their place of residence,” he said in a statement.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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