Four emergency gynaecology/obstetrics services are closed on Saturday and six on Sunday.

According to official information, four gynecology and obstetrics emergency services will be closed on Saturday and six on Sunday, mainly in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, which also indicates the closure of three pediatric emergency services over the weekend.

According to the emergency scales published on the SNS portal, at 15:15 this Friday, nine emergency points in obstetrics and gynaecology are expected to be open in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region on Saturday and seven on Sunday.

In the region, three emergency services in these specialties will be closed on Saturday and four on Sunday.

Therefore, on Saturday, the emergency gynecology and obstetrics departments of the São Bernardo Hospital in Setúbal, the Vila Franca de Xira Hospital, Nossa Senhora do Rosário in Barreiro are closed, and on Sunday, the Caldas da Rainha Hospital will join them.

At the São Francisco Xavier Hospital in Lisbon, this emergency service is mentioned, that is, it is intended only for internal emergencies and cases referred by INEM Patient Emergency Centres (CODU) and the SNS 24 line.

Only cases referred by CODU will be admitted to the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon and the Garcia de Orta Hospital in Almada.

In the Centro Region, the emergency obstetrics and gynaecology department of the Santo André Hospital in Leiria has been closed, while in the Algarve, the emergency gynaecology department in Portimão has been closed.

According to the schedule, the pediatric emergency departments at Chaves Hospital, Beatriz Angelo Hospital in Loures and Nossa Senhora do Rosário Barreiro Hospital will also be closed over the weekend.

Emergency pediatric services will be provided at the Fernando Fonseca Hospital (Amadora-Sintra) and the Additional Paediatric Care Service at the Viseu Hospital.

Last weekend, the Gynecology and Obstetrics Emergency Service of the Maternidade Alfredo da Costa (MAC) Hospital was the only maternity service in the city of Lisbon, performing around 60 births, above average, and treating around 400 pregnant women. According to the institution, twice as many as usual.

This Friday, Lusa was contacted by ULS São José, which is part of MAC, and said it had “teams equipped with resources considered necessary and sufficient to ensure the best response, respecting the minimum distribution considered safe for the operation of services.”

However, he noted that “the expected increase in pressure in the coming days has an impact not only on human resources, but also on the occupancy of physical space, which is limited, as well as on increased waiting times in non-urgent situations.”

“MAC will work as usual, relying on the high missionary spirit and professionalism of its teams, and in a clear and coordinated manner with other health institutions and the SNS Executive Directorate,” he emphasizes in a written response.

The SNS Executive Directorate calls on the population to “always call the SOS Gravida line”. [808 24 24 24] before contacting the emergency gynecology service.”

According to data from the Ministry of Health’s General Services Service (SPMS), published today by Luse, the SNS Grávidas line, which is part of SNS 24, responded to 16,141 calls between June 1 and July 26, of which 8,268 calls related to screenings that took place in June.

According to SPMS, over the two months, some 2,490 users were referred to primary care services and 11,209 to hospital emergency services, and 246 people were referred to INEM.

The data also indicated that more than 13.5% of pregnant women were advised to continue self-care activities.

As for the number of services provided by SNS 24 in the first eight months of the year, the data shows that they amounted to 1875.56, which is 9493 less than the same period in 2023.

According to the figures, 610,941 users were referred to emergency hospitals and 461,379 to primary care.