On Monday, the Health Authority (ERS) warned that restrictions on the presence of accompanying persons during pregnancy and childbirth in Portugal due to Covid-19 have already been lifted after the end of the pandemic.
In a surveillance alert published this Monday, ERS states that the Directorate General of Health (DGS) withdrew the guidelines setting out strict rules in September and therefore promises to “continue to monitor the performance of health care providers in order to guarantee users’ rights, especially regarding the right to control in terms of monitoring pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.”
Restrictions on accompanying persons were one of the reasons that prompted the General Directorate of Health (DGS) to publish a note in March 2020 stating that their presence would only be allowed if the institution considered that “all safety conditions to prevent infection have been met” .
Since September, the “exceptional regime” provided for in the recommendations of the State Health Service of March 30, 2020 “on pregnancy and childbirth, in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic and epidemiological infection with Covid-19” has ceased to apply. The note was published today.
“Consequently, health care providers must adapt their procedures within the framework of the right of observation in matters of monitoring pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period exclusively to the provisions of the Basic Law on Health Care,” states ERS.
The guidance, published in March 2020, sets out a set of procedures to strengthen resources and surveillance for obstetrics, pre-hospital care, routine prenatal care, emergency care or hospitalization of pregnant women with suspected or confirmed Covid-19.
In today’s supervisory notice, ERS recalls that in May, “the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the Covid-19 pandemic an ‘international public health emergency’.”
In the case of Portugal, “since the last quarter of 2022, there has been a reduction in public health measures initially introduced to prevent, control and monitor outbreaks of Covid-19 infections,” ERS adds.