Hospitals in the Algarve – Faro and Portimão – the Orthopedics Emergency Service ended on Saturday and one of the services has only one doctor this Sunday, while the other block will be closed.
The complaint was made by Social Democrat deputy Cristóvão Norte, who considers the situation as "of the greatest seriousness", since "it determines that episodes of urgency be diverted to hospitals in Lisbon or, alternatively, for private hospitals in the region.».
For the Algarve parliamentarian, these facts reveal the “lack of coordination and incapacity to ensure adequate care provision for citizens”.
These failures have been «progressively more recurrent in the Hospital Center of the Algarve and become more acute in midsummer, when the region has a resident and visiting population of around one million people, for whom there is no prompt response, but yes. a degradation of services”, adds Cristóvão Norte.
But it is not only in Orthopedics that there are flaws in CHA. Last Friday, Correio da Manhã revealed that, in the area of infectious diseases, there is only support «from 09 am to 00 pm, from Monday to Friday».
The reason, adds that daily newspaper, is the lack of doctors, which led the Hospital Center of the Algarve (CHA) to adopt a contingency organization for the summer.
“Unveiled on June 28, the plan is, however, the target of much criticism. Signed by the clinical director Carlos Santos, the circular establishing the contingency organization, in force from 1 July to 30 September, recognizes “situations in which there is no scale” in Orthopedics», says the CM.
As for Infectious Diseases, "due to incapacity of human resources for a 24-hour scale, it will support the specialty from 09:00 am to 21:00 pm, from Monday to Friday, to all hospitalizations and to all sectors of the Emergency." But later, an addendum was even made that limits this support from 09:00 am to 19:00 pm.
On the other hand, to address the lack of doctors, users referred to the «specialties of General Surgery, Gynecology/Obstetrics, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology, Orthopedics and Neurosurgery, after being screened, will be referred directly to the respective specialty», according to him. flat.
The Algarve deputy Cristóvão Norte stresses that "in view of the danger of minimum and decent care standards for citizens", the Ministry of Health must adopt "urgent measures, namely the extraordinary transfer of the missing specialties to the Algarve, in order to contain this restriction , which is being felt in a particularly severe and penalizing way for the citizens, who are farther away from health and, therefore, more unprotected».
However, to try to face the shortage of doctors that worsens in the summer, when the population goes from the usual 500 thousand to more than 1 million, the Algarve Regional Health Administration (ARS) is asking doctors from various specialties to work in hospitals in Faro and Portimão and in health centers in the region during the summer months.
The solution is part-time mobility – for two or three days, for example, doing the rest of the week on regular service – or those who have a second home in the Algarve and who, before or after a holiday period, want to continue in the region. work while the family is on vacation.
But so far the plan has not been giving enough results, as evidenced by the added difficulties this weekend.
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