The president of the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health (SPMS) Luís Goes Pinheiro highlighted the response capacity of the SNS24 line in a 2020 marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, with a number of calls answered in excess of 3,670 million.
«More than 3,670 million calls have already been answered on the SNS24. It is, in fact, an especially significant number, bearing in mind that last year 1,5 million calls were not even answered. Therefore, we have more than doubled the number of calls answered last year and, as we know, in a context that was not regular throughout the year», stated Luís Goes Pinheiro in an interview with Lusa.
Underlining the year with the "greatest demand ever" for the SNS24 by citizens, the president of SPMS did not fail to admit the problems registered in the first peak of the pandemic, in March, but emphasized the adaptability of the service, which in November surpassed all records, with more than 816 calls answered, including more than 38 thousand in a single day.
«We have more than 5.600 health professionals providing care on the SNS24 line. Some residents in the seven 'call-centers' that now exist across the country and others at a distance, with equipment that allows them to provide this support to the line from their homes or elsewhere. This is the big difference: at the beginning of the pandemic, the number of health professionals would not reach 1000 and today there will be more than 5.600», he observed.
The reinforcement of human and technological resources, associated with the reformulation of the system's operation, were essential, understands Luís Goes Pinheiro, to ensure the capacity to respond to people's concerns. However, in addition to the increase in the number of calls answered, the president of SPMS also valued a better quality of service with this increase in investment.
“We have diversified the professions that today provide services on the line; they continue to be mostly nurses, but we also have psychologists – namely within the psychological counseling line and there have already been about 55 people assisted who were able to benefit from this service – dentists, pharmacists and also sixth-year medical students” , he said.
Between the recognition of covid-19 as "a fatality that caught everyone with a lot of violence" and the effect of change for the better that the pandemic had on the SNS24 and which provided "a very special year", Luís Goes Pinheiro insisted on noting the new perception of the Portuguese about the service.
“Throughout this year they were able – in a context as difficult for all of us as was the context of the covid-19 pandemic – to rely on this line and the support of more than 5.600 health professionals who provide services today and who have gone along these various tough months of pandemic an ever-present voice and an ever-open door for all those who felt that, in some way, they needed the attention of the NHS».
Regarding the immediate future, the SPMS leader assured that the organization is still studying the plan to support the vaccination process against covid-19, which is scheduled to start on the 27th. admitted that the SNS24 "will evidently be one of the elements of support and support for the administration of vaccines" in the population.
Urged to look at the SNS24 in 2021, Luís Goes Pinheiro expressed his confidence that the service will remain a reference for citizens.
“I hope that the experience of contacting users with the SNS24 line – which in most cases has been very positive – does not end with the pandemic and it will certainly not end, now it will be part of the Portuguese's lives in a continuous way,” he reiterated. And he sentenced: "that it remains in a context very close to the reality that it has encountered so far and that it then continues to refer citizens to the most appropriate health unit."
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