The Local Health Unit (ULS) of Santa Maria in Lisbon clarified on Tuesday that the second surgical block of the new maternity ward will be operational during September, opening “all the wards gradually.”
The second surgical unit of ULS’s new maternity ward in Santa Maria was scheduled to reopen Monday, 15 days after the first went into operation.
This second surgical unit did not fully open on Monday, and a source from the institution explained to the Lusa agency that a “gradual opening is planned over the course of a month,” with “an external opening for pregnant women in the Santa Maria area, if there are vacancies.”
Pointing to the opening of a second maternity ward in mid-September, ULS Santa Maria recalled that, in order to manage the network well, “it is necessary to call the SOS Grávida line in advance.”
On Monday, the second surgical block of the new maternity hospital began to open in stages, following the opening of the first surgical block at the Luis Mendes da Graça Maternity Hospital on August 19.
With the introduction of the new surgical units, ULS Santa Maria is once again performing caesarean sections and inductions of labour, which, during the work in the new maternity hospital, which began about a year ago, had to be carried out in other institutions of the National Health Service (SNS) of the Lisbon region.
On August 5, the new maternity ward opened an emergency gynecological care unit, providing services to pregnant women up to 22 weeks, a service that had been provided at the facility throughout the year in which the work was carried out.
According to ULS Santa Maria, in the first week of operation of the new facilities, the emergency service served about 260 users, averaging 40 cases per day.
Last month, the obstetrics and gynecology ultrasound diagnostics department was put into operation, with a total of six rooms, which is one more than in the previous department.
In an interview with Lusa at the end of July, ULS Santa Maria President Carlos Martins confirmed the full operation of the two maternity units as of September 1.
Carlos Martins said the new maternity hospital should be ready to handle 3,000 births a year from 2025, with plans to hire 120 professionals between now and next year.
A global investment of six million euros has made it possible to renovate the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Emergency Department and build 12 wards, two operating rooms and an examination room in a new maternity ward, covering a total area of approximately 1,000 square metres of new construction.
“From an objective point of view, we have invested six million euros in works, equipment and furniture. We have programmed in our action plan, in terms of human capital, investments of four million euros per year. And we cannot forget that we have been in a dead end for a year now, and there has been no income – an average of 2.5 million euros per month – which is 30 million euros. So 36 million euros plus four is 40 million euros of socio-economic investment than the National Health Service. And the taxpayers have done it,” the president of the institution explained.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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