The Sete Rios Clinical Care Center has served more than 1,200 users in its first month of operation, representing 30% of the patients with green and blue bracelets admitted to the Santa Maria Hospital Emergency Department.
According to the local health department of Santa Maria, this Tuesday in Lisbon, the first Clinical Assistance Centre (CAC) to open in the country received a total of 1,234 users between August 1 and September 1.
The establishment of the Central Emergency Response Centre to deal with acute situations of lesser complexity and urgency, thereby freeing emergency hospitals from less serious cases, is one of the measures envisaged in the Emergency Situations and Healthcare Transformation Plan approved by the Government.
The same source added that the CAC registers an average of 40 consultations per day, which corresponds to “about 30% of the total number of green and blue patients admitted to the Central Emergency Service of Santa Maria Hospital during the same period.”
ULS reported that in the first month of operation, Sete Rios CAC teams also conducted about 400 nursing visits and 200 diagnostic tests.
The Santa Maria Central Emergency Service and the 24 SNS line “share the vast majority of referrals for medical consultations” in CAC Sete Rios, ULS said, adding that only 16 users – 1% of the total – had to be redirected to Santa Maria’s urgent care.
According to ULS Santa Maria, the figures for the first month of operation “demonstrate the adequacy of calls to the Clinical Care Center with an overall balance between response speed and satisfaction from users and professionals.”
The Sete Rios CAC is open seven days a week, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and has a team of doctors, nurses, diagnostic and therapeutic specialists, administrative assistants and auxiliary health workers, and is equipped with diagnostic equipment such as X-ray, clinical analysis and echocardiogram.
According to the government’s plan for the health sector, CACs are intended to become an alternative healthcare option for non-urgent and non-emergency patients, starting in Lisbon and Porto, but with the intention of expanding based on the results obtained and gradually expanding to other areas of the city.
At the end of May, the government approved a health emergency and transformation plan consisting of five priority axes, which include more than 50 measures to be implemented urgently, prioritized and structured.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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