The Intensive and Neonatal Medicine Service of the University Hospital Center of the Algarve (CHUA) has a shortage of doctors to ensure night shifts, which could force the closure of the service in September. However, the Board of Directors of CHUA guarantees that it is working to solve the shortage of clinicians and, even today, there may be a solution to this problem.
According to the Sul Informação, of the 22 doctors that make up the team that guarantees the night shift, between 21:00 pm and 9:00 am, only three remain.
In a clarification sent to our newspaper, the Board of Directors of the hospital admits that "the current situation of lack of medical personnel to ensure night shifts was aggravated by personal reasons, duly justified, of professionals who are on sick leave, for reasons of illness, maternity leave and family support».
However, a source from CHUA says that, at this moment, to say that the service will close is to do “futurology”, since “the problem has not yet arisen”.
CHUA «is currently, and until the beginning of September, developing, together with the Directorate of the Service, the ARS Algarve and the Ministry of Health, all efforts to guarantee the respective night stopovers and ensure a regional response”, guarantees the Board of Directors in a statement.
The hospital also emphasizes that the Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Medicine Service «continues to function with the support of all professionals in the pediatric and neonatal area, who have managed to ensure, thanks to their exemplary professionalism and dedication, a quality care response ».
At the time, the hospital ensured that the situation was not due to the lack of clinicians, despite having acknowledged the “lack of specialist doctors”.
The CHUA then explained that this lack of doctors has been punctually filled with requests, from various NHS hospitals, "for temporary provision of professionals, possibility of establishing protocols for doctors and other specialists", in addition to contact "with supply companies of medical services and also the opening of competitions for the admission of doctors, which have been deserted due to the lack of candidates».
This August, the capacity of the incubators of the neonatology service of the Hospital de Faro again forced to the transfer of a pregnant woman at risk, but to the Hospital Amadora-Sintra. The baby ended up dying, and an internal inquiry was opened to determine if there were any responsibilities of the Algarve hospital unit.
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