The Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital (MAC) in Lisbon has seen around 60 births since midnight on Friday, above average, and has seen around 400 pregnant women, twice as many as usual. Monday, the facility.
The MAC Emergency Gynecology and Obstetrics Service, the only service that accepts pregnant women in Lisbon, was one of eight services that were open in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region over the weekend (six were closed), the Executive Board of the National Health Service said.
In an assessment made at a press conference at the MAC, the director of nursing at the San José Local Health Unit (ULS), Maria José Costa Diaz, said that from 00:00 Friday until Monday morning, “an average of 19 births in every 24 hours,” above the average in the maternity ward, which is about 10-12 births per day.
During this period, MAC had to transfer about 10 “pregnant women, non-pregnant women, women in labor and newborns in a completely stabilized condition to other hospitals” because MAC’s postpartum hospital “only has 30 beds,” the person in charge said.
“In order to continue to respond in terms of the delivery room and to be able to empty women in the postpartum period, we have transferred them to other hospitals, to which we are also grateful for receiving women from their area,” said Maria José Costa Diaz at the Lusa agency.
The nursing director stressed the importance of these transfers as they freed up more beds in the postpartum period so that MAC could continue to respond in the labor and delivery room.
According to information published on the SNS portal, this Monday four gynecology/obstetrics departments in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo (Santa Maria, Lisbon, Setúbal, Almada, Caldas da Rainha and Leiria hospitals) will be closed.
When asked if demand for MAC’s emergency service remains high, Maria Jose Costa Diaz said yes.
“It continues to increase, and even depending on the weekend, this Monday we will also transfer more women to other maternity hospitals,” he stressed.
The MAC has teams equipped with resources deemed “necessary and sufficient” to provide the best and safest response, the nursing director said.
“We are already doing everything we can to strengthen our response. We are one of the few maternity hospitals open and, contrary to what some media commentators are reporting, we do not have an excess of professionals. We have the professionals we need to provide the response we need to provide depending on our demand,” he stressed.
Maria José Costa Dias would like to thank the entire team of the Maternidade Alfredo da Costa Hospital, which provides emergency and inpatient care, stressing that “they have fulfilled their mission and have shown a remarkable sense of mission in the response they have continued to provide throughout these days”, which has seen an increase in traffic.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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