The executive director of the National Health Service (SNS) stated this Monday that hospitals are taking measures to respond to the increase in demand during the winter and prevent emergencies from reaching the limit.
During a visit to the Santarém Regional Hospital, where he met with the Board of Directors, António Gandra D’Almeida highlighted to Lusa the hospitals’ preparation efforts for winter, ensuring that the SNS and hospital units are taking measures to respond to increased demand and prevent emergencies from reaching “their limit”.
“Hospitals are preparing for winter. We all know that winter is always a very complex time when ULS [Unidades Locais de Saúde] They reach their limit and we are trying to avoid it as much as possible. But we are going to have a bad winter, we have to work to try to overcome or reduce this excess need for assistance,” he stated.
The CEO also admitted the existence of “Limitations on medical equipment” in various regions of the country.
“Of course there are limitations for the teams and professionals and that is why we try to attract, hire and offer better conditions to be able to provide an adequate response to the Portuguese population,” said the person in charge.
During the visit, the executive director of the SNS expressed his concern about the situation at the Amadora-Sintra Hospital, which on November 1 activated the Contingency Plan to respond to the departure of 11 surgeons, ensuring that a plan is underway to hire new professionals. .
“I am very concerned about this situation and we have worked closely with the board of directors. A plan was drawn up that implies, of course, hiring professionals to try to solve the problems, but above all, with a great responsibility to respond to the population,” he stated.
This The visit to the Santarém District Hospital was the first in a series of threewith flights also scheduled via ULS in the Baixo Alentejo and the Algarve. The objective, according to the executive director, is to “learn closely about the difficulties and limitations” of the facilities and “plan the response to winter,” the person in charge explained to Lusa.
Even in the face of layoffs in the health sector, as occurred with the board of directors of the Local Health Unit (ULS) of the Algarve, Gandra D’Almeida rejected the decision for political or partisan reasons, stating that “sometimes it is necessary to improve some conditions for the strategic vision.”
Source: Observadora
