A group of doctors at the Cascais Hospital said they had served statements disclaiming responsibility for failing to ensure a safe environment in providing adequate care to neurological patients.
In an open letter addressed to the health authority, the President of the Medical Association and the Executive Council, published by the National Federation of Doctors (FNAM), more than 20 internal medicine specialists at the Cascais Hospital, a public-private partnership, report a “serious decline in care capacity.”
“Since August 2023, there has been a decline in the capacity of the neurology service at this hospital as a result of the departure of several neurologists from this institution, including at the risk of losing their training,” they warn.
In the letter, the experts explain that the Neurology Service currently “formally consists of one doctor whose working hours have been reduced, without being able to provide hospitalization (…) or even adequate support in emergency cases or hospitalization of patients.” patients of other specialties.”
“There are also two other doctors who collaborate as service providers only in providing consultations, but still with a clear inability to meet the need for monitoring patients with pathologies of this nature, namely diseases with a high prevalence such as cerebrovascular diseases, epilepsy. and dementia syndromes,” they add.
They state that the ability to perform tests such as cervical Doppler, electroencephalogram, electromyography and others is also limited, which “delays and complicates diagnosis.”
The doctors add that there are a number of neurological diseases with which GPs are “unfamiliar” with the diagnosis and treatment, emphasizing: “the fact that we systematically take on decisions regarding the monitoring of these patients is frankly harmful for them.” .
To try to find a solution, the doctors are asking for the creation of a coordination protocol with another hospital or local medical department capable of providing this type of differentiated care to patients with neurological pathologies affected by the territory of the Cascais Hospital, until this capacity is again guaranteed.
They recall that these concerns have already been brought to the management of the clinic and the board of directors of the Cascais Hospital “several times”, “without any changes.”
Therefore, they insist, physicians at the Cascais Hospital are not forced to bear any responsibility “with regard to the diagnosis and treatment of potentially neurological pathology in patients admitted to this hospital,” emphasizing that the conditions do not guarantee the provision of adequate care to these patients. Patients.
In issuing the letter, FNAM said in a statement that the disintegration of teams and the loss of capacity to train future professionals “is due to a failure to promote measures to promote physician retention.”
After 14 years of running a public-private partnership (PPP) for Cascais Hospital, Luciadas Saude abandoned a new tender in 2022 because economic sustainability was no longer guaranteed.
In an interview with Negócios newspaper on Monday, Grupo executive president Luciadas Saude explained that the new contract added a number of features and new spheres of influence, which led to a deficit in accounts.
The competition eventually went to the Spaniards from Ribera Salud.
CEO Lusíadas Saúde warned of the risk of a Spanish operator “without any presence in Portugal” running a National Health Service (SNS) hospital, stressing that it is an organization “with very little ability to retain specialists in Portugal and attract new specialists, because here there is only the Cascais Hospital.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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