O Closing of the Gynecology/Obstetrics and Maternity Emergency Service of the Portimão Hospital Unit is a «one-off measure», guarantees the clinical director of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA).
The closure, which starts tonight at 21 pm and lasts until 9 am on Monday, the 20th, was announced last night by the CHUA Board of Directors, which explained that the situation was due to « to the difficulty in ensuring stopovers at the Maternity Hospital and at the Portimão Birthing Block».
During these almost seven days of closure of the Emergency and Maternity, these services will be provided only in Faro, by doctors from both hospitals. It is a «reorganization» of the services that the clinical director Horácio Guerreiro assures is only «punctual».
In an interview with Sul Informação, that official assured that the current situation is due “more to the lack of pediatricians than to the lack of obstetricians”, adding that it is difficult, with the few existing resources, to ensure “two emergency services of Obstetrics and two maternity hospitals”.
Even so, this year CHUA has already managed to hire «two young pediatricians for Portimão, with the possibility of another one, as well as two more for Faro». But, he underlined, «it is enough for two of them to get sick, get pregnant, go on vacation, have to assist a family member or go to a congress» for that to cause immediate problems.
“We have a very stretched rubber band here”, lamented the clinical director of CHUA. «50% of our Obstetrics Emergencies are provided by external providers. Pediatricians are scarce. In Faro, there are only three active to make nights...»
Horácio Guerreiro recalled that, «throughout this year, we have already had to close the service and maternity hospital in Portimão, but for short periods of 12 or 24 hours». This time it's more serious.
Stressing that this is a "national problem", which only yesterday motivated an emergency meeting between the Minister of Health and those responsible for hospitals, the Medical Association and the sector's unions, that official revealed that CHUA himself took the initiative, «about a year ago, to present many proposals», which include increasing the salary of doctors and the amount paid for overtime to doctors in hospitals (external providers receive more). "It is a structural issue of the entire National Health Service that has to be resolved", he added, in his interview with Sul Informação.
In addition to salary issues, the clinical director says that, at CHUA, a "bet" has been made on improving the "working conditions" of its doctors, with some success already being recorded in "capturing new professionals", namely in Radiology, Anesthesiology and Plastic Surgery.
The new equipment - such as the Angiographer presented days ago or a state-of-the-art surgical microscope that was offered to CHUA – are also «highly motivating». The same is true of medical innovation, such as the surgical procedure that our newspaper followed, or the commitment to medical research and teaching, in partnership with the University of Algarve Medicine course and the Algarve Biomedical Center. All this, defended Horácio Guerreiro, «helps to arrest people here».
At CHUA, guaranteed its clinical director, «since December we have been paying an overtime bonus to our pediatricians and obstetricians». The problem, he added, "is that money doesn't create more doctors."
And that's why, until Monday, all Algarve babies will have to be born in Faro, even if the mothers live in Aljezur, Sagres or Monchique…
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