A person who has a heart attack over the weekend and is in Nazaré will have to travel more than 100 kilometers to receive medical care at a hospital in Coimbra. The nearest hospital, Leiria, 38 kilometers away, has no cardiologists to support the coronary green lane – the intensive care and emergency department for heart attack cases.
In Minho, from Friday evening until Monday morning, there is no general surgery department in the emergency department of Viana do Castelo – anyone who needs it will be redirected to Braga, a department that in turn is closed from 8:00 am this Friday to 8:00 a.m. on Mondays, No gynecological/obstetric emergency services.
Restrictions on hospital services due to the inability of doctors to work longer hours than required by law will lead to overburdening of specialized departments. Coimbra University Hospitals administrator Carlos Santos fears that the increased workload on the service will lead to “increased waiting times and a decrease in the quality of service, since resources are not unlimited.”