Camara de Loures approves petitions to challenge pediatric emergency room closure

Loures City Council approved two motions this Wednesday to challenge the closure of the pediatric emergency room at Beatriz Angelo Hospital (HBA) at night and on weekends and call on the government to lift the measure.

The proposals submitted by PS and CDU were unanimously approved by the municipality (led by PS) two days after the strategy for the reorganization of the pediatric emergency service in the Lisbon and Tagus region, disclosed by the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS) became known .

According to the strategy published on Monday, pediatric emergency departments at the HBA in the Lisbon area remain open only from Monday to Friday (09:00 to 21:00) and close on weekends.

The service has been closed at night and on weekends since early March due to a shortage of professionals. , Doña Estefania and San Francisco Xavier.

This reduction in hours was contested by the four municipalities served by the Hospital Beatriz Angelo (Loures, Odivelas, Mafra and Sobral de Monte Agraso) as well as user committees.

A week ago, even before the release of the DE-SNS document, the mayors met with Health Minister Manuel Pizarro, who explained that the cut in hours for the pediatric emergency department at the hospital in Lures was due to a lack of medical professionals promising to find a solution to remedy the situation.

This week, on Tuesday, the four mayors met “on a whim” to discuss a proposal to discuss the DE-SNS, deciding to demand that the measure be lifted and ask for a new meeting with the Minister of Health.

In accordance with the published strategy for the reorganization of the emergency service, the pediatric services of the hospitals of Sao Francisco Javier (Lisbon) and the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste (Torres Vedras) will also close at night from 1 April.

The Centro Hospitalar de Setúbal is now closing the pediatric emergency room once every two weeks, from Friday 9:00 pm to Monday 9:00 am, DE-SNS told DE-SNS, noting that the plan’s schedules are valid until June 30.

The rest of the emergencies in this specialty remain open permanently, namely in the hospitals of Santa Maria, D. Estefania, as in Lisbon, Fernando da Fonseca (Amadora Sintra), Vila Franca de Xira, Cascais, Hospital Garcia de Orta, in Almada, Santarém and the Hospital Centers of Barreiro Montijo, Medio Tejo (Torres Novas) and Oeste (Caldas da Rainha).