The Portimão Hospital Delivery Block closed again at 9:00 am this Thursday, the 21st, and will remain closed until 9:00 am on Monday, July 25, informed the Centro Hsopitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA).
The reason for this new closure is "the already known shortage of Pediatricians to ensure the emergency schedules, namely the Delivery Block and Pediatric Emergency", explains CHUA, in response to a request for clarification made by the Sul Informação.
Thus, the parturients of the Barlavento Algarve should go to the hospital of Faro, since, according to CHUA, “a coordinated assistance response was reorganized between its two hospital units, thus guaranteeing the safety of services provided at regional level”.
«During the period mentioned above, the regional assistance response of CHUA to pregnant women with more than 22 weeks of gestation is guaranteed at the Hospital Unit of Faro by the team of experts Faro, which will be reinforced with doctors from the Portimão Hospital Unit».
The Gynecology Emergency Department and the Obstetrics Emergency Department for pregnant women up to 22 weeks of gestation continue, however, «to operate normally in the two units, Portimão and Faro».
As for the Pediatrics Emergency Department, "it will be carried out with pediatricians, in the Faro, and General Practitioners with extensive experience in Pediatrics, at the Portimão Unit».
CHUA also guarantees that “all situations that clinically require an evaluation by a Pediatrician will be properly addressed”.
The Algarve PSD, in two voices and in separate communiqués, has already come to contest this closure.
Cristóvão Norte, president of the District of Social Democrats in the Algarve, underlined that «in the last thirty days, in thirteen of them there was no maternity in Portimão. It is not, therefore, a problem of holidays or holidays, it is a problem that was hidden, maintaining this model of yo-yo emergencies, sometimes open, sometimes closed, which put the health of pregnant women and babies at risk» .
Cristóvão Norte recalled that the Government has already assumed that it will restructure the network, so “the government may be preparing to close the maternity hospital [in Portimão], which is not a solution”.
He also reiterated that, «when the maternity hospital is closed, there must be a public notice, so that pregnant women do not go there, wasting essential time at such an important moment in their lives».
For their part, the Algarve PSD MPs Luís Gomes, Rui Cristina and Ofélia Ramos stressed that «it is not tolerable to continue to live on constant closures that jeopardize the well-being and safety of the population», criticizing «the chronic lack of clinics facing the Algarve region».
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