The League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) warned on Tuesday of the difficulties facing fire brigades due to hospital restrictions that mean ambulances sometimes take twice as long to transport patients.
Speaking to Lusa, LBP’s president highlighted this “difficult and desperate” situation, with hospital emergency departments “closing with great irregularity and firefighters not knowing which emergency services” are working.
“Patients are referred almost on a case-by-case basis, it’s difficult and desperate,” said Antonio Nunez, saying firefighters take an average of 20 to 30 minutes when “the patient is in the ambulance, at home or at the scene.” accident” to know how urgently they should be transported.
The LBP president said the League had already asked the health minister for a meeting and would also urgently request a meeting with the new chief executive of the National Health Service (NHS) about this “difficult situation”.
António Nuñez stressed that restrictions on emergency shifts exist not only in gynecology, obstetrics and pediatrics, but also in other specialties such as traumatology, stroke and anesthesia, and stressed that the situation is worsening in several regions of the country.
“We don’t have a referral hospital anymore. Firefighters used to go to their local hospital, which no longer exists. You have to wait for CODU [Centro de Orientação de Doentes Urgentes do INEM] make a link. It’s very difficult for firefighters when a patient is in an ambulance for 20-30 minutes to know where he’s going,” he explained.
Antonio Nunez also said that firefighters, who spend “twice as much time” transporting a patient, “need to be allocated more resources.”
“Increasing human resources related to health care is undesirable during such fires,” he lamented.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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