In the first seven months of the year, the SNS24 line answered close to 1,5 million calls, a number that exceeded the total made in 2019, according to a balance released today by the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health.
According to the "SNS24 Line Activity Balance 2017 – 2020", 2017 calls were answered in 864.939, a number that rose to 1.200.171 in the following year and to 1.485.808 in 2019.
In the first seven months of the year (until 31 July), 1.494.928 calls were answered, an average of 4.095 per day, at the Contact Center of the National Health Service, coordinated by the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health (SPMS).
A source from the SPMS told Lusa that the Covid-19 pandemic situation caused "a lot increase" in the volume of calls to the contact center.
"In six months we made more than we had done in the previous year," said the same source, adding that in March and April, during the state of emergency, many of the calls made to the line were for clarification of doubts about Covid -19.
According to data provided to the Lusa agency, the triage service carried out by nurses referred 30.488 users to areas dedicated to Covid-19 in primary health care and 83.631 to hospital emergency services with this value.
The majority (131.823) remained in self-surveillance at home, according to guidelines from the General Directorate of Health (DGS), which created specific algorithms to guide patients infected with the SARS-Cov-2 virus, which causes the Covid-19 disease.
The data show that the triages carried out by nurses over the last three years, which involve clinical evaluations, have been increasing year by year.
Thus, in 2017, 688.736 users were referred to various services, a number that rose to 867.180 in 2018 and to 1.051.574 in 2019.
This year, 985.781 users were referred to the Anti-Poison Information Center (CIAV), health centers, the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INE) and emergency services, but also to stay in self-care, indicate the SMPS data.
On April 1st, the psychological counseling service dedicated to users and health professionals started up. Until 5 August, it had received 27.118 calls, of which 24.846 from users and 2.272 from health professionals.
A new access channel for deaf citizens was also made available on the SNS24 website, on 21 April, through a video call tool, in conjunction with the National Institute for Rehabilitation.
From April 21st to August 5th of this year, it carried out 559 consultations by a Portuguese sign language interpreter to deaf citizens, of which 267 referred to screening.
According to the SPMS, services provided by a Portuguese sign language interpreter to deaf citizens are also available for deaf citizens who need mediation at the National Health Service (health centers and hospitals).
The SNS 24 Portal, launched in January 2019, had 1.455.792 users in that year and this year, until August 5, 4.730.105, «representing a growth of over 900% compared to the same period of the previous year», refers to SPMS, adding that the informative contents of the Covid-19 scope have already undergone more than 60 updates.
The “Assess Symptoms” service, which allows users to assess their symptoms or that of another person, was used by 33.499 users in 2018 and this year by 380.184.
«It is considered that the adhesion to this service was quite significant, since the volume of activations in the first six months of 2020 was more than 1 million and 800 thousand times, with the Covid-19 algorithm having registered more than 485 uses', underlines.
As for human resources, the SPMS states that the number of nurses “is dynamic”, depending on demand, having gone from less than 1.000 to around 1.400 at the peak of the pandemic.
At the moment, it has 1.006 nurses, who work in shifts of four to eight hours, and it also has a resource pool, activated whenever necessary, of over 326 health professionals.
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