The Emergency services of the Local Health Unit (ULS) Amadora/Sintra are experiencing a “significant increase” in the number of hospitalizations, “related to the impact of low temperatures typical of this time of year”. In a statement, ULS indicates that the increase is associated, “mainly, with cases of respiratory infections and the worsening of chronic diseases”, and that “high demand” has increased waiting times.
According to information collected by Lusa, urgent patients (yellow bracelet) are waiting an average of 10 hours and 19 minutes to be seen at Hospital Fernando Fonseca (Amadora-Sintra), this being the longest waiting time among the main hospitals of the country.
Between 8am on Friday and 8am this Saturday, 831 admissions were recorded in the different emergencies,and according to ULS information. “Of the users treated during this period, 18 hospitalizations were carried out in resuscitation. Only 186 users (22%) previously used the SNS24 line.”
The SNS24 referred 19% of users to the General Emergency, 26% to the Pediatric Emergency, 57% to the Obstetric Emergency, 64% to the Gynecological Emergency and 17% to the Basic Emergency.
ULS calls on users to contact the SNS24 line (808 24 24 24), “to ensure that emergencies remain available for the most serious and urgent cases”. And remember that many situations can be resolved in Primary Care or in Basic Emergency Care, open 24 hours a day, “helping to avoid overloads in hospital Emergency Rooms”.
High waiting times in other hospitals
This afternoon,At Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, in Loures, 31 patients with a yellow bracelet (urgent) waited an average of three hours and 12 minutes in the central emergency, while the wait for very urgent patients (orange bracelet) was 23 minutes.
The 15 least urgent patients (green bracelet) had to wait, on average, seven hours and ten minutes, according to os Data released by Lusa refer to the average waiting time for care at the end of Saturday afternoon and the number of patients presented includes those awaiting first care, after screening, and test results.
At Hospital São Francisco Xavier (Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Oeste), 21 urgent patients waited an average of two hours and 26 minutes, longer than at Hospital Santa Maria (Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte), where the 16 urgent patients waited an average of one hour and 39 minutes.
Source: expresso.pt
