The maternity hospital in Portimão is closed until Tuesday, the 11th, due to the lack of pediatricians, with only "imminent and/or emerging births" guaranteed, as admitted by the Board of Directors of the University Hospital Center of the Algarve (CHUA). The remaining pregnant women are referred to Faro.
The situation of the temporary closure of the maternity unit in Portimão was denounced this Saturday by the Independent Union of Doctors (SIM).
João Roque da Cunha, SIM's general secretary, explained that the closure is due "to the lack of pediatricians to ensure neonatal care in physical presence."
"Since there are no doctors available to guarantee the minimum safety requirements for pregnant women who come there, it is imperative that the service be closed, and this will happen until Tuesday, when the situation will be restored", stressed Roque da Cunha .
The Board of Directors of CHUA, in response to the request for clarification made by the Sul Informação, admitted that there will be “difficulties in ensuring the periods of the stopover between 16:30 pm on the 7th and 9:11 am on the XNUMXth of June”.
Attributing the situation to the "lack of professionals in the pediatric specialty in the hospital unit of Portimão", the CHUA administration explains that, until 9 am on Tuesday, only imminent and/or emerging deliveries will take place in that hospital, therefore, pregnant women in labor «with conditions for safe transfer» will be forwarded to the Hospital Unit of Faro.
On the other hand, during this period and "as stipulated in the clinical protocol", the risky parturients admitted to the Obstetrics service will be transferred to Faro, as there is a more differentiated maternity hospital there, with the support of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The same will happen with children who need more differentiated support in Pediatrics, who will also be referred to Faro.
As for the care in the Pediatric Emergency Service in Portimão, this «will not be compromised, being ensured by the team of general practitioners, with competences in pediatrics», adds the administration of CHUA.
These officials added that "a set of measures were adopted internally and in an organized manner with their own resources to mitigate the possible impacts of the lack of specialists in this area".
The administration of CHUA admits that the lack of these specialists and the difficulty in hiring them are recognized, so that some steps were taken without success, including the request for temporary assignment or punctual sharing of pediatricians with various hospitals of the National Service of Health (SNS), more than 50 pediatricians were contacted through companies providing medical services, as well as several competitions were held that were left out due to lack of candidates». But none of this has worked so far.
The CHUA even guarantees that it is "fully available to hire pediatricians immediately" and adds that "in the scope of the national competition for admission of medical personnel for the hospital area currently underway, 2 vacancies for pediatricians are available for the Center University Hospital of the Algarve».
Who has already expressed their concern with the case is the PSD/Portimão, who regrets that "at the height of the year when the entire region doubles - and even triples - its occupation" there are already "signs of disruptions in essential areas of hospital care provision in CHUA, affecting not only residents but also the tourists who, quite rightly, have already this week opted for a vacation or a short break in this region and in particular in Barlavento».
In a note signed by Carlos Gouveia Martins, president of the Portimonenses Social Democrats, this party stresses that "in this wide geographic area, having no pediatric response and for women in labor for 4 days at the Hospital do Barlavento Algarvio is alarming."
For parturients or children in a more serious condition, there are only two solutions left: «go to the already saturated Emergency Room of the Hospital de Faro, which, in the case of an Algarvian resident in Odeceixe, means an hour and a half to two hours of travel and 1 kilometers round trip, paying for the taxi or ambulance or fuel out of pocket, instead of 30 to 2 minutes and 00 kilometers each way. and go back to the Hospital de Portimão's Emergency Room” or “go, once again, to one of the hospitals of the Hospital Particulares do Algarve group, in Lagos or Portimão, paying what you are constitutionally entitled to”.
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