This Thursday, the PCP requested an urgent hearing from the Minister of Health and the executive director of the SNS on the closure of wards in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region during the summer.
In a request addressed to the president of the parliamentary health commission, PSD deputy António Maló de Abreu, the PCP stresses that, given “the difficulties experienced in the obstetrics and gynecology emergency services and in the delivery blocks” in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo region, the Government decided to “announce the maintenance of rotating schemes for the closure of labor wards, in many of the hospitals, during the summer period”.
In addition, the party continues, the “closure of the Santa María Hospital delivery block, as of August 1, for a period of nine to 12 months and the temporary closure, as of June 1, of the gynecology services and obstetric emergency service of the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste”.
The PCP affirms that, as an alternative to these closures, the solution found by the Government is the “referral of the users to the Hospital de São Francisco Xavier, in Leiria, also foreseeing the sending of pregnant women in labor, with more than 36 weeks pregnant, directly to private sector hospitals in the Lisbon region and Vale do Tejo”.
“The decision to maintain the rotating closures of these emergencies and the option of resorting to private groups to meet the needs, highlights the option of continuing to transfer public resources to the private sector, not acting where necessary, that is, in attracting and retaining healthcare professionals in the SNS”, it reads.
In this context, the PCP therefore requires an urgent hearing, in the parliamentary health commission, of the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, and the executive director of the SNS, Fernando Araújo.
In this request, signed by the communist legislator João Dias, the PCP also mentions that “it has been warning about the difficult situation with regard to the proper follow-up of the pregnancy, access to obstetric services, particularly emergency services, the quality and availability of the birthing blocks ”.
“Concerns resulting from evidence that Maternal health faces serious problems todaythat have worsened and for which urgent responses are required, as well as the adoption of structural measures that put an end to the progressive decrease in the assistance provided by the National Health Service (SNS),” the lawsuit reads.
For the PCP, “it is necessary to adopt measures that aim to increase the salary of health professionals, their careers and improve their working conditions.”
Source: Observadora
