The chairman of the board of directors of the Santa Maria hospital said on Wednesday that the expansion work planned for this summer will involve the closure of the maternity hospital, as there are several floors with simultaneous interventions.
“These works justify the closure, because we are going to intervene on three floors at the same time, and we cannot do this with the delivery block operating,” said Ana Paula Martins, who was heard this Wednesday at the Parliamentary Commission on Health, at the request of Chega. on the OB/GYN Response Plan of the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS).
Ana Paula Martins explained that the original project for the job was just a retrain, and that it was the Department of Health and DE-SNS who asked Santa Maria to increase capacity, not just a retrain.
“There was already a project to retrain the maternity hospital, but after a month and a half (…) the executive committee and the Ministry of Health are asking Santa Maria to increase the capacity,” the official said, stressing that it was a hype. a project worth six million euros, which will allow more than 1,500 births per year.
He also said that “the whole process of reviewing the work plan was always accompanied by the former director of the department” – Diogo Aires de Campos, meanwhile exonerated after criticizing the plan to close the maternity hospital and transferring births to the San Francisco Xavier Hospital during work.
The president of the hospital also said she was surprised by a letter from gynecologists and obstetricians, in which “one of the problems was that they did not know about the project for pregnant women.”
In this regard, the clinical director of Santa Maria Tato Marinho, who was also on the parliamentary committee, confirmed this position, stating: “The director participated, he attended 10 meetings, if not [informação] for the team, it’s not our question.”
While acknowledging that the first working draft did not include the closure of the maternity ward, Ana Paula Martins emphasized, however, that in this regard, pregnant women “will receive [na urgência] in containers.
“This is not the best way to greet a woman in labor,” she added.
The president of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte (CHULN), which includes the Santa Maria and Pulido Valente hospitals, also emphasized that the increase in capacity also implies an increase in the number of postnatal wards and obstetric ultrasound units.
Regarding the current capacity of the maternity hospital at Santa Maria Hospital, the head of the clinic acknowledged that “the maternity ward is small” and said that pregnant women transported by INEM are often closed on weekends.
“We are going to have another 1000 square meters, increase the induction room from 14 to 31. [lugares]postpartum will increase from 29 to 41 [camas]caesarean sections from one to two and in newborns from 19 to 29,” Tato Marinho gave the example, explaining that these are valences scattered over six floors of the hospital.
Also, Chief Nurse José Alexandre Abrantes explained that the original project for the new maternity ward was abroad, so he did not envision the closure of the maternity hospital, but emphasized: “We are faced with another aspect, the result of the closure of other maternity wards, (…) many times we had to close the delivery room for INEM.”
Construction work at the new maternity hospital in Santa Maria has been at the center of a controversy involving medical professionals in the obstetrics and obstetrics service and has already led to the dismissal last month of the director of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, Diogo Aires de Campos, and the director of the obstetrics service, Luisa Pinto.
Work will begin in September and should be completed by the end of March 2024. Until then, teams from Santa Maria will work in coordination with teams from San Francisco Xavier Hospital.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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