Dozens of people protested, at the end of the afternoon of Thursday, the 9th, against the eventual closure of the maternity ward at the hospital in Portimão.
Summoned by the National Health Service Users Commission (SNS), the protest considered that «there is a serious setback in the health services provided at the Hospital de Portimão, a hospital integrated in the SNS». For this reason, defended the demonstrators, «closing the maternity ward at the Hospital de Portimão is not the solution», even being «a crime against the population».
«Women, children and the entire population cannot be reduced to a maternity ward at Hospital de Faro for half a million inhabitants», in a situation that gets worse for users in Aljezur and Vila do Bispo, who «would be two hours away, with the risks and costs that such a measure would entail».
The Users Commission points out that «the loss of the skills of Obstetrics and Pediatrics jeopardizes the rights of women, families and social progress, and limits access to health and well-being, in a hospital center that serves the municipalities of Albufeira, Lagoa, Silves, Portimão, Lagos, Monchique and Aljezur and a population of more than 213 thousand inhabitants».
«In a country with low birth rates, where the National Health Service is the true and only guarantee of access to health for all, regardless of their socioeconomic status, this closure will force pregnant women to move to other, more distant hospitals, when available. a hospital that serves and must serve for that function, without putting mothers and their babies at risk».
The SNS Users Commission approved a motion to send to the Government:
1 – The effective guarantee of the right of children to be born and to be cared for at the Hospital de Portimão, with the maintenance of the Maternity, Obstetrics and Pediatrics Service, improving the quality of all these services;
2 – Placement of all doctors, nurses, diagnostic technicians, and all other professionals missing in the SNS staff, in order to guarantee the provision of quality health care;
3 – Restoration and improvement of all services and facilities at Portimão hospitals;
4 – The swift construction of the Hospital Central do Algarve, in order to provide the region with more specialties;
5 – Consider and meet the fair labor and wage claims of health professionals, essential guarantor of the quality of the SNS, in order to secure them at the Hospital de Portimão
6 – Survey the health care needs of the population of the Algarve, with a view to presenting an integrated plan for the reorganization of public health services, at the level of primary health care, hospital care and integrated continuous care, involving in its defining the contributions of users, health professionals and municipalities.
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