The Board of Directors of Centro Hospitalar do Algarve guaranteed that «there is not, nor has there ever been, any negative pressure room» at the Hospital de Portimão.
A position taken following complaints from the regional delegation of the Portuguese Nurses Union, which alleges that the only isolation room in that hospital unit was destroyed, in order to install a triage area there.
Despite the assurances given by the CHA, the union maintains its position. SEP regional delegate Nuno Manjua assured the Sul Informação that "there are several colleagues who testify that the room was used for isolation" before it was reconverted, and supports his accusation with old photos of the room, apparently equipped for patient care. As for the position of the CHA administration, he says it is an "attempt to evade the issue".
Also in statements to our newspaper, the Director Nurse of CHA José Vieira dos Santos assured that the room mentioned by the SEP was used only for storage.
«What existed in Portimão was an isolated office, which served as a material warehouse and had a sign at the entrance saying insulation. But that room was never used as isolation, nor was there ever any negative pressure," he assured. Having no negative pressures, an isolation room is not suitable for confining patients with contagious diseases that spread by air.
«I have doubts that nurse Manjua knows what a negative pressure room is, as he has been away from professional activity for many years, having dedicated himself to union life. The three rooms of negative pressures, existing in Faro, are after his departure, to be a union delegate», illustrated José dos Santos.
"Don't get lost in going around the problems and do what you should do, for the safety of professionals and users", defended Nuno Manjua. In other words, the important thing, for the unionist, is that an isolation room with the appropriate characteristics is created. "Not now, behind curtains," he said.
The Director Nurse of the CHA, on the other hand, denies that the isolation is carried out under these conditions, in Portimão. "If there is a suspicion of airborne diseases, the user is immediately sent to Faro. In case it is contagious, but not from the air, any room can be used for this purpose, as long as the professionals use the appropriate material. The room is completely disinfected after it has been used», he said.
As for the option of transforming the room indicated as “isolation” into a sorting room, it was due to its location. Before, users arriving at the Hospital de Portimão were subjected to a first observation in a small room, already inside the patient treatment area.
The new sorting room has "a door to the general admission area, another door to the ambulance arrival corridor and a third door to the Emergency Department itself". For the former triage office, the «material for clinical consumption, such as serums and the like» was moved.
In a press release, in which it responds to "news broadcast by the media", the CHA clarifies that "two of these rooms are within the scope of the Pulmonology Service and the third, with capacity for ventilation and hemodialysis, is located in the Unit of Multipurpose Intensive Care», all of them at the Hospital de Faro.
As for the existence of a sign saying "isolation" next to the new triage room at the Hospital de Portimão, the CHA managers say that there was the intention of "a previous administration" to transform it into a room for negative pressures, "never this having been accomplished'.
«Due to the absolute lack of conditions, namely the dangerous distance from the central nucleus of the Emergency Service, this space has never or very rarely served as a hospital for patients, functioning, in practice, as a warehouse for clinical material. It was this space, inadequate for the practice of quality medicine, that the current administration transformed into an excellent nursing triage room», according to the CHA.
“If it was used as a warehouse, that was an option for the administration, not the nurses. Just for one thing, in their opinion, not being used does not mean that it will be destroyed without being replaced», considered, for his part, Nuno Manjua.
Those responsible for the Algarve's hospitals accused the union of "systematic and voluntary misrepresentation" of the situation, for which they expect "a formal apology" from the SEP Board. A week ago, a note from the SEP denounced that two nurses were infected with tuberculosis in the service, in Portimão, a situation that, says the Union, was enhanced by the lack of an isolation room in that health unit.
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