“If solid and consensual basic solutions are not found, I think there will be serious risks of collapse during this summer period. There may be major or minor collapses, but there will be serious risks in terms of operation”, said João Varandas Fernandes, who highlighted the increase in the number of emergency rooms at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Central (CHULC) with the closure of other emergency rooms and inpatient units. .
Speaking to Lusa, the clinical manager listed the cases of Santarém, Loures, Hospital de Santa Maria (Lisbon) and Garcia de Orta (Almada) to explain the reality currently experienced at CHULC — Hospital de São José, arguing that “there is no it is possible to continue like this” and that there are not enough teams to attend to all closures.
“São José professionals have guaranteed the response to patients outside their area of influence in these emergency services and this has been accelerating”, he said, continuing: “On average we have between 52% and 60% of patients assisted in the emergency services of the CHULC from outside the area. We are at the forefront of preventing these failures and the emergency teams have spared no efforts, but if a solution is not found, the threats are real”.
Reiterating a “weakening of the SNS with serious risks of collapse”, Varandas Fernandes recalled that health professionals are also entitled to rest with families in the summer and that the situation could then get worse with a predictable increase in affluence. “We know it’s not easy, but quick solutions have to be found,” she noted.
“This has been dragging on for a long time and it was foreseeable to happen several years ago. Necessary measures were not taken. In recent years, we have had a health system that is very ideologically tied and it is necessary to find new forms of organization and clinical management”, he clarified, considering that “closing emergencies due to lack of human resources is an obvious thing” and that it is important to go “further ” in the search for solutions.
Among the possible answers to the problems, the doctor used the example of integrated responsibility centers as a way to defend the SNS, something he said was “fundamental and essential” for Portuguese society.
“Professionals — all of them, without exception — are remunerated at their base, but then they have a complementary system of incentives in view of the indicators that are met and the production they have and the quality of care they demonstrate. This is one of the ways: to develop more and more integrated responsibility centers in the country, centralizing pathologies. It is fundamental,” he stressed.
Varandas Fernandes also left a challenge to the political power and the Executive Board of the SNS, led by Fernando Araújo, for something to be done “quickly and sustainably” in order to avoid a break in the assistance response to the population.
“It is necessary to go further, deeper, have a great articulation and make choices by pathology and differentiation. It is not possible to have everything everywhere and a more modern vision of the SNS has to be put into practice, if we want to keep it”, he noted, concluding: “The Executive Board of the SNS has to go further and listen to professionals . Acting on top of the crisis is not a good adviser”.
