Non-covid-19 patients who see appointments, exams or surgeries in the National Health Service (SNS) are cleared in the face of the worsening of the pandemic will be referred to the private and social sectors, said the Health Minister Marta Temido this Monday.
In a press conference at the Ministry of Health, in Lisbon, the minister emphasized that the recovery of care activities for patients with other pathologies had “only a difference of 600.000 consultations between urgent and non-urgent in primary health care until September compared to the same period last year. , in a volume of 31 million ”, but acknowledged that the exponential increase in cases may again condition the SNS response.
“The recovery effort was significant. In hospitals, the scenario was also of improvement, but not so advantageous. And we had programs for the recovery of care activities with direct incentives for health professionals. But, if that does not arrive - and admitting that it does not arrive, in view of the deprogramming of activity that we will have to do - the referral to the other agreed sectors will occur according to what the needs and interests of the patients are ”, he said.
Marta Temido assumed that “the government is considering and starting to implement measures in which the deprogramming of assistance activity may lead to patients being channeled to other sectors” of activity.
The Minister of Health also admitted that the government may proceed with a worsening of measures at the local level, similarly to what happened to the municipalities of Paços de Ferreira, Felgueiras and Lousada.
“What the government decided to do was to adopt a state of calamity in order to have the necessary framework to, depending on the risk assessment of each municipality or region, be able to aggravate the measures. This assessment is done and there may be more serious measures now enacted ”, he added.
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