Two nurses from the Emergency Department of the Hospital de Portimão were recently diagnosed with Tuberculosis, denounced the Sindicato dos Enfermeiros Portugueses (SEP).
The situation was detected in May, when one of the health professionals began to show some symptoms of the disease and, although these two nurses are already at home, the remaining professionals who make up the team, about 50 people, will still be « for tracking».
This situation, accuses the union, is linked to the alleged deactivation of the only isolation room in the Hospital de Portimão, which "was destroyed in the last works". «Now the mandatory isolation of patients with suspected or confirmed tuberculosis is done by… curtains in the “open space – clinical decision space” (image attached)», assure the nurses.
This reality was denied by the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve, in a press release, which guarantees that there is still an isolation room in Portimão. On the other hand, it guaranteed that the two nurses with tuberculosis are being followed by the occupational health service of this hospital centre.
The nurses criticize the CHA's ability to respond to this type of problem, recalling the case that occurred some time ago in "another service in that hospital", where professionals who came into contact with a patient infected with tuberculosis waited "six months by screening'.
«Professionals are outraged for having to wait for authorization to proceed with the exams and for not having yet been informed of the results of the X-rays, some performed about 3 weeks ago. They also do not understand why they still have not had the results of the IGRA test carried out for nearly 2 weeks to about 10 nurses, with a strong probability of there being more positive ones», according to the SEP.
“The Board of Directors [of the CHA], in June 2014, assured the nursing team that there would be no more patients admitted to the emergency room and that the maximum length of stay would be 12 hours. The reality is that up to 30 patients are hospitalized, some for several days. More patients hospitalized side by side, fewer nurses and with deficient isolation conditions is expected to increase the risk of contagion from this and other diseases», said the SEP.
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