One of Santa Maria’s maternity hospitals is expected to open in August.

One of ULS’s new maternity units in Santa Maria is set to be operational in August, the institution’s president said, noting that in September Lisbon will have “two of its largest hospitals operating at full capacity.”

“On September 1st we will have both units open. We are making some efforts to be able to open maternity unit number one, the smallest one, on August 19th, 12 days before the end of the month,” said Carlos Martins, president of the local health department of Santa Maria, in an interview with the Lusa agency.

The new maternity hospital, Maternidade Luís Mendes da Graça, is scheduled to open on September 1.

“We will definitely be able to [abrir o primeiro bloco em 19 de agosto]”We have this in terms of ratification, because we are talking about providing support specifically in the event of an emergency, and as an urgent matter we will begin to provide a more active response to pregnant women up to 22 weeks,” he emphasized.

Carlos Martins said conditions would be different at Santa Maria ULS, but acknowledged that “the problems that have occurred will not all go away.”

“The results will obviously be very different. Since September, we have been in a transitional phase, and MAC [Maternidade Alfredo da Costa] is already at 100% operational stage, two of the largest university hospitals will be operating in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region,” he stressed.

The person in charge also reported that from January the department must “guarantee only the capital’s emergency gynecological care” and that in the first half of the year it had only performed three births.

“We’ve had three births this semester, all emergency. In one of them, a helicopter had to land here urgently, at the request of the crew, especially the medical team, and two more complicated cases. The only births we’ve had were in emergency situations, and otherwise, we had a normal routine,” he emphasized.

Carlos Martins recalled that for a year now, health workers have been working “in less than ideal conditions.”

“We had to rework the department’s plan of activities. […] “We have achieved greater activity this semester than we had in the first semester of last year, when we were still at maximum capacity, and greater activity than we will have in 2022,” he said.

According to ULS President Santa Maria, the 2019 consultation has already been exceeded, a year before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

“My benchmark is always 2019. And we have exceeded the 2019 consultations, and we are able, given these operational spaces and the results of the first half of the year, to be very close to what the activity was. “With the exception of births, of course,” he said.

A global investment of six million euros has made it possible to renovate the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Emergency Department and build a new maternity ward with 12 rooms, two operating rooms and an examination room, with a total area of ​​approximately 1,000 square meters.

“We are talking about single rooms, rooms with a maximum of two beds and a private bathroom, as well as working conditions for professionals in terms of work areas and rest areas,” explained Carlos Martins.