The Minister of Health announced today, in Guarda, that a new funding line will soon be opened to upgrade emergency departments judged to be in a “more fragile condition”, and in urgent need of refurbishment.
“There are emergency units across the country that must be modernised. They need essential works, because it is simply no longer possible to continue operating under the conditions some of these services are facing. Guarda is one example; Beja, where I was last week, is another, but there are more,” stated Ana Paula Martins.
The Health Minister was speaking to reporters during a visit to the Guarda Local Health Unit (ULS), as part of preparations for the National Health Service’s winter period. She met with the board of directors and inaugurated the Women and Children’s Health Department.
She stressed that the upgrades are necessary for patients, “for reasons of human dignity”, but also to ensure that patient flows “can be organised in the most appropriate way”, noting that emergency care is “a difficult area”.
“Emergency departments lack the proper circuits required for patients to be received, triaged, directed and then kept under observation for as long as needed. What cannot continue is patients being left in corridors, yet that is what is happening, and it has been happening for many years,” she said.
Ana Paula Martins underlined that the works will also allow health professionals to continue their work under better conditions and provide higher-quality care.
“It is impossible to deliver what we do in facilities like these, despite the immense effort, sacrifice and dedication of the teams, something we see across the entire SNS,” she said.
As well as improving infrastructure, the minister noted that “some equipment” is still lacking, and that the Government will continue investing in CT scanners, ultrasound machines, MRI equipment and imaging services.
“We are using the Recovery and Resilience Plan for this and prioritising health units such as the one in Guarda, especially those in the interior regions, which have been left behind in surgical, diagnostic and imaging capacity and now need to be supported to make up for more than two decades of delay,” she added.
The minister said she is confident this can be achieved “for reasons of pragmatism and even timing”.
She added that attracting human resources is also essential, something that becomes “easier” with improved facilities and equipment. But well-equipped emergency departments are not enough, she argued: coordination with primary care must also improve.
“The question I ask is: why are so many green and blue triage patients turning up in emergency departments? These are people who need follow-up care. Why are so many care home residents ending up here unnecessarily? We need to organise the system better,” she said.
The minister noted that ULS structures include primary care, which must function properly to filter less urgent cases.
“We improved from last year to this year. Around 40 per cent of acute, lower-priority cases were redirected from emergency departments to complementary appointments in primary care, what we call deferred consultations,” she explained.
According to the minister, this was achieved largely through the SOS 24 helpline, “but that cannot be our only tool”.
Moreover, she acknowledged today that the health service will come under “very significant pressure” due to a new flu strain, warning that the coming winter “will be very tough.”
“We have extremely, extremely high vaccination coverage rates, and we will continue to insist, insist and insist, because, as every relevant European authority has already stated, this is a year in which flu, in particular, will pose a major challenge,” the minister said.
She said hospitals are equipped with winter and contingency plans at various levels, but conceded that “the pressure will be very great.”
“Winter will be very tough. And in addition to those plans, our emergency medical services have strengthened protocols to support hospitals, because pre-hospital emergency care plays a crucial role during periods of heightened pressure.”
Ana Paula Martins added that the usual seasonal deployment of additional resources had been expanded to allow extra teams to be mobilised.
She also noted that the National Institute for Medical Emergency (INEM) is “seeking to reinforce its capacity, as happens during these phases, particularly in inland regions.”
On the vaccination campaign, the minister said the SNS is running a “mass vaccination effort” and that demand for flu jabs has been “very high, particularly in health centres, care homes and the national network of continuing care.”
“Through the Directorate-General of Health (DGS), we have issued repeated appeals for all those eligible to continue getting vaccinated. It is the way we can reduce unnecessary trips to emergency departments among high-risk groups and also lower mortality,” she said.
The Ministry of Health is liaising with ULS units to prepare the SNS for the winter period and to understand “in detail how health units are responding to the added challenges of this time of year, particularly concerning seasonal illnesses, emergency department pressures, and coordination across different levels of care.”
As well as visiting emergency services, the minister is meeting with hospital boards and healthcare professionals. The visits also include discussions on “specific measures to strengthen staffing and equipment, as well as strategies to improve coordination between primary, hospital and long-term care, to ensure an integrated and efficient response to the needs of the population.”
The SNS executive director, Álvaro Almeida, is accompanying Ana Paula Martins on these visits, with the exception of the trip to the Guarda ULS. On Tuesday, the minister will be at the Alto Alentejo ULS.
Source: LUSA
