Emergency nurses from the Santarem District Hospital (HDS) staged a protest on Tuesday against working conditions, lack of planning and a lack of specialists in the medical department.
To condemn the situation, nurses also called a press conference outside the hospital.
“The truth is that the situation with the influx of patients has never been as bad as it is now and there is a lack of planning to respond to patients,” Helena Jorge from the Portuguese Nurses Union (SEP) told Lusa. .
According to a union leader, the emergency service at the Santarem hospital is “chaotic”, with “patients scattered all over the place” and “not enough space to work”.
These conditions, according to Helena Jorge, constitute “physical and psychological violence against nurses.”
The union member also noted that December and January saw a huge influx of patients into emergency services and that HDS should have anticipated and planned for this situation.
“Today we warn. Most nurses are at risk of burnout, while others need psychological support. We are not even fighting to have such a situation,” Helena Jorge emphasized.
Apart from poor working conditions and lack of planning, nurses are also demanding the hiring of more health workers.
To this end, the emergency nurses will send a letter to the SNS board of directors, executive management and the hospital ethics committee.
Joana Nunez, a nurse at Santarem Hospital, told Luca that, in addition to increasing human resources, nurses are also asking for “stretchers, beds, medicines and air conditioning” to ensure a better response to patients and provide “strategic plans, thinking with the head.”
In response to the large influx of patients, HDS created a temporary inpatient unit to facilitate patient distribution, suspended elective surgical procedures (except emergency and oncology) and strengthened nursing teams.
However, Helena Jorge believes that these measures are not enough and that nurses “do not see much of a solution in this administration.”
In recent days, as across the country, emergency departments have seen a large influx of patients requiring hospitalization.
On Monday, HDS sent a statement saying the hospital’s internal medicine department had admitted a total of 295 patients, representing an occupancy rate of 200.68%.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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