The Anesthesiology Service of Portimão is "on the verge of ending". It was guaranteed by the President of the Medical Association, after the meeting he held this Wednesday, with his colleagues at the Hospital de Portimão.
Miguel Guimarães dedicated Wednesday to the problems experienced in the Algarve's National Health Service, namely in health units. Faro and Portimão of the University Hospital Center of the Algarve.
After having spent the morning in Faro, where he met with the president and other Board of Directors of CHUA and where he stated that the construction of the Hospital Central do Algarve «is absolutely important», as well as pointing out the (many) shortages of doctors with which this entity is struggling, the president of the Medical Association was in Portimão in the afternoon.
It was at the end of this visit, during which he listened to his colleagues at the hospital in Portimão, that Miguel Guimarães revealed the “worrying situation” experienced at the Anesthesiology Service of Portimão.
The advanced age of the already insufficient anesthetists – there are six, when there should be 15 – means that, in a very short time, there may not be anyone to do emergencies.
The youngest doctor in this specialty, at this health unit, is 54 years old. However, from 55 years of age onwards, clinicians cannot be forced to make an emergency. If none of them are available to do the bank, “the total response capacity in this hospital ends”, in terms of anesthesiology.
“If there are no anesthetists, the operating theaters stop working, not to mention other areas. And this hospital has a wide surgical activity, which would be called into question».
The solution is to hire new doctors in this specialty or to allow the service to carry out training – “we are going to study this at the level of the Order, we are going to try to make our contribution to resolve the situation”.
This was one of the situations denounced by clinicians in the Algarve, but not the only one. At the meetings, it became clear that the «almost unanimity» of the doctors from the Algarve hospital units considers that the creation of the Algarve Hospital Center, comprising the three public hospitals in the region, was not a good option.
«We realize here today that the vast majority of people think that the establishment of the hospital was not an asset, not even for the Hospital of Faro, nor for the one in Portimão. The doctors, the service directors and the patients were lost,” said Miguel Guimarães.
“This is an issue that probably needs to be rethought, involving all partners, including the Ministry of Health itself and the ARS, because this situation must be properly evaluated. If it doesn't bring advantages for the functioning of the system, maybe it has to be done in a different way», he added.
Also "very serious" are the growing problems in transferring patients from Portimão to other hospitals.
"In the emergency service of Portimão, as the service director himself testified, the evacuation of patients when necessary – when there are failures or when there is no specialty here – is very complicated at the moment."
“Sometimes, to call an ambulance to transport a patient to a more differentiated unit or to a unit where the specialty exists, it takes several hours”, he described.
“This is a situation that needs to be resolved quickly. There has to be a conversation between whoever transports patients and the CHUA - or even the Ministry of Health - because this may have to go to a higher level - as it is not acceptable for a user to be transferred from an emergency service, wait hours and hours», stated Miguel Guimarães.
All these problems have been transmitted by the Medical Association to the tutelage and will be so again, as soon as there is an opportunity. Even because Miguel Guimarães promises that no one will “shut him up”.
Photos: Hugo Rodrigues|Sul Informação
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