PS and PCP deputies demanded this week, in questions sent to the minister of Health, guarantees that the maternity hospital in Portimão will not be closed.
In the initiative presented in Parliament, the Socialist parliamentarians allude to the letter that the director of the Pediatrics Service of the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve (CHA) addressed to the chairman of the Board of Directors of the CHA, in which the «transitional closure of the Maternity of the Portimão Unit from 21:00 pm to 9:00 am, starting on July 5th, and also from 9:00 am to 21:00 pm on days 6, 10, 16, 17, 18, 24, 27 and 31, as a result of the presence of only one pediatrician for every 12-hour period».
The director of the Pediatrics Service of the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve defended the closure of the Portimão Unit's Maternity Hospital, considering that «the current medical, pediatric, intern, and contracted resources are insufficient to maintain the care activity, at the level of urgency in both units, Faro and Portimão, as it has been done so far", stating that, since the urgency of the Portimão unit is responsible for care in the maternity hospital, this implies the presence of two pediatricians in the day and night, which has been "more or less achieved with recourse to pediatricians of Faro and asking doctors to work more overtime than they are legally required to do».
Miguel Freitas, deputy elected by the Algarve and first subscriber to the PS Question addressed to the Minister of Health, also expresses his concern with the statements made by the chairman of the Board of Directors of Centro Hospitalar do Algarve, who «despite having considered that the proposal did not is feasible, he assumed, however, that the unit has only kept its doors open due to the good will of the doctors in Portimão, who have to work longer hours, and those in Faro, who will help there when necessary».
In the opinion of the socialist parliamentarian, "this situation does not exempt the Ministry of Health from the responsibility for definitively resolving the serious problem of the lack of doctors in the Region - which the Order of Doctors estimates to have more than 200 clinicians."
Miguel Freitas: Data clearly attest to the scarcity of health professionals that characterizes the Region, and the importance of maternity for the Algarve population, specifically in Barlavento
"In the case of the Portimão Hospital Maternity Hospital, with only six pediatricians and eight obstetricians - who simultaneously provide emergency and maternity services - more than a thousand deliveries per year are carried out, serving populations that, in the event of its closure, transitory or definitive , are more than 100 kilometers from the unit of Faro», sustains Miguel Freitas, for whom «these data clearly attest to the scarcity of health professionals that characterizes the Region, and, naturally, the importance of this unit for the Algarve population, specifically in Barlavento».
Socialist Party deputies Miguel Freitas, Luísa Salgueiro, José Junqueiro, André Figueiredo, Catarina Marcelino, Elza Pais, Ivo Oliveira and Pedro Farmhouse questioned the Minister of Health on whether he is considering reducing the activity of the Maternity Hospital in Portimão and moving the term pregnant to Faro, as publicly stated by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Centro Hospitalar do Algarve", and, "otherwise, what measures does this Ministry envisage to take, avoiding the closure, albeit transitory, of the Maternity of the Hospital de Portimão", inquiring about " what guarantees does this Ministry give that the problem of the lack of professionals is urgently resolved, and that it does not compromise the normal provision of health care to the Algarve?
The Parliamentary Group of the PCP also asked the Ministry of Health if it intends to close the maternity hospital of Portimão and what is the justification – “besides merely economic arguments” – for a measure that the communists consider to be “so clearly harmful to the interests of the populations and which calls into question a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic'.
PCP: what guarantees does the Ministry give that the problem of lack of professionals is urgently resolved, and that it does not compromise the normal provision of healthcare to the Algarve?
The PCP parliamentarians recall that the news about the possibility of closing the maternity hospital in Portimão caused "just indignation and revolt among the populations."
On the basis of this news and of the statements of several responsible for the health services in the Algarve is, they stress, «the growing and permanent lack of pediatricians and obstetricians at the Hospital de Portimão, as well as the fact that the number of births performed in this hospital is, allegedly less than 1500 per year. It was precisely arguments of this nature that covered the closure of several maternity hospitals across the country by the previous PS government».
"As the PCP timely warned, the merger process of hospitals in Faro, Portimão and Lagos in the Algarve Hospital Center – as part of a policy of attacking the National Health Service – would lead to the degradation of services and the closure of services, particularly in the hospitals of Portimão and Lagos, to the increase in waiting and travel times, thus as to its costs, the greater difficulties of users' access to emergency services, consultations, treatments, hospitalizations and others, and the illness and premature death of people from the Algarve and those who visit the region».
The communists believe that the events are "proving them right", "with the chaos installed in the different regional health units, the glaring lack of professionals (according to data from the Algarve's own ARS, more than 800 doctors and nurses are missing). , senior technicians, diagnostic and therapeutic technicians, technical assistants and operational assistants) and the lack of equipment and materials essential for medical diagnoses and treatments, while private clinics and hospitals in the region are flourishing, benefiting from scandalous public support».
PCP: It was precisely arguments of this nature that covered the closure of several maternity hospitals across the country by the previous PS government
If the closure of the Portimão Hospital maternity hospital goes ahead, the PCP considers that «the Algarve would be reduced to just one maternity hospital for around half a million residents and the populations of the municipalities of Aljezur, Vila do Bispo, Silves or Monchique would, in some cases, almost two hours away from the nearest maternity hospital with the risks and costs that such an option entails».
"The answer to the problems that were identified in the maternity of the Hospital de Portimão does not involve its closure, but rather by increasing the number of pediatricians, obstetricians, nurses and other health professionals, by reversing the merger process of the three hospitals in the region and the end of the Hospital Center of the Algarve, and the reinforcement of funds from the State Budget for the operation and investment in hospitals and other health units in the region», defended the communist deputies.
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