The minister denies there is a dispute over the urgent closure of Beatriz Angelo.

On Tuesday, the health minister dismissed the fact that there was a general controversy over the closing of the pediatric emergency service in Loures over the weekend, citing a lack of specialists to provide care.

“I don’t think there is a general dispute. The card that was yesterday [segunda-feira] issued by executive management [do SNS] it is much more moderate than many of the technical proposals that have been released,” said Manuel Pizarro in statements to journalists following a meeting of European Union (EU) health ministers in Brussels, Belgium.

On Monday, the user committee of the Beatriz Angelo Hospital (HBA) in Loures expressed outrage at the decision to close the pediatric emergency service over the weekend and announced that action to challenge was being considered at the Ministry of Health in Lisbon.

The Lures Chamber, chaired by socialist Ricardo Leão, also opposed the closure of the HBA’s pediatric emergency room at night and on weekends and called on the government to reverse the decision.

“The municipality believes that the constitutional right to access to healthcare is at stake and calls on the government to immediately reconsider this decision, as well as the implementation of a comprehensive plan to eliminate the need for medical workers, especially in Loures, one of the most populous cities in Portugal, which is experiencing there is a big shortage of doctors in the public health system,” the Lisbon District Municipality said in a statement.

The mayor of Mafra, one of the municipalities served by the hospital, said the government “failed to live up to expectations” in its decision to keep pediatric emergency rooms closed over the weekend.

Manuel Pizarro added that the closure of this emergency service “was not an organizational or political decision” and that it was only due to a “lack of professionals and pediatricians”.

This decision is contrary to the assurances given a week ago by the Minister of Health to the mayors of Loures, Odivelas, Mafra and Sobral de Monte Agras (municipalities served by the hospital) that Beatriz Angelo’s emergency department will reopen over the weekend, “at the time needed define”.

Asked about the guarantees he gave to the mayors of these municipalities, the Socialist leader said that it is important for the population to have access to “quality and safety emergencies”.

“The guarantee I gave is the guarantee I now reiterate: we will work to see if it is possible to make the Loures hospital emergency department open throughout the day, from 9 am to 9 pm, and not just Monday to Friday. but also on weekends,” he added.

Only with the solution of the shortage of specialists will it be possible to change the hours: “In any case, I must say that at night or on weekends, the children of Loures and their families are under the protection of the operation of other emergencies, namely in the Hospital of Santa Maria and the Hospital of Dona Estefania” .

However, the minister acknowledged that while it is “more inconvenient” for users served by Beatriz Angelo to deal with these emergencies, influx to pediatric emergency services is typically lower at night and on weekends, specifically due to less car traffic.

Regarding the layoffs of the heads of the emergency department of internal medicine at the San Francisco Xavier Hospital in Lisbon, Manuel Pizarro said that when he returns to Lisbon, he will have “a conversation to understand exactly what the motives are behind these layoffs.”

“But there is no doubt that in Portugal we have an excessive flow of emergency access,” he said.

The hospital’s doctors resigned Monday in a letter to the board of directors criticizing the lack of solutions to the service’s problems.