The health minister resigned this week after a 34-year-old man died while being taken from hospital for lack of space.
The death of a pregnant woman who could be treated at Lisbon’s main hospital due to lack of capacity has sparked outrage in Portugal, where a months-long physical crisis has shut down emergency departments across the country and put maternity care under undue pressure.
The 34-year-old woman was admitted to Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital on August 23 for respiratory disorders and high blood pressure. Due to the lack of space in the neonatal ward, she was taken to another hospital, but died of an attack on the center in the ambulance. .
Your baby, born at 30 weeks and weighing 1 lb 11 oz. (772 g), survived.
Health Minister Marta Temido, at work since 2018 and around the covid pandemic, resigned this week after the case was revealed. He said in a brief message sent to the Guardian that he “no longer had conditions to remain in the workplace”. António Costa said the woman’s death was “the last straw” for Temido.
Santa Maria Hospital said the patient had been stabilized and described transfers between regional hospitals as a “frequent procedure. “He told CNN that the woman’s death is “not foreseeable or expected in this situation. “
An investigation has been opened. The government’s General Inspectorate of Health Activities (IGAS) is also investigating the death of a baby on June 9 in Caldas da Rainha, north of Lisbon, after there were no obstetricians to assist the mother in her delivery. On August 22, another pregnant woman had to be transferred twice from one hospital to another, covering a total of nine5 miles (150 km) of labor.
Newspaper front pages referred to Portugal’s once highly rated National Health Service (NHS) as a “national service for diseases” and the Ministry of Health as a “Ministry of Simulation” after the closures left thousands of others unconcerned. the public fitness system practically loose.
The crisis is the result of structural disorders that last for decades, adding low wages, apparatus and inefficient bureaucracy, said Dr. Gustavo Tato Borges, president of the National Association of Public Health Physicians.
Salaries have not been replenished since 2009. A specialist doctor has a monthly starting salary of €1,853 (£1,603) and a nurse €1,200. submit cadres to the NHS,” Borges said. The NHS does not have the ability to attract doctors and make them stay for a long time. “
Although the number of doctors in Portugal has almost doubled in the last 20 years, almost part of it is in the personal sector. It is estimated that a third of the population has health insurance, an accumulation of almost double in the last 16 years. , as waiting times have increased in the public fitness system.
Infant mortality is at its rate since 2018 and the third in the last decade. Portugal has an excess mortality rate of 23. 9%, 4 times higher than the EU average.
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The Ministry of Health a “thorough” investigation into the mortality rate.
Before resigning, Temido had announced 1,600 medical specialist vacancies in fields such as gynecology, obstetrics and public health, and approved a new style for the NHS, with another control structure, greater decision-making autonomy for hospitals and measures to increase productivity.
However, health care staff say the new model, coupled with the minister’s resignation, fails to address the structural disorders plaguing the public health system.
Costa said there would be no replacement in fitness policies, the replacement of Temido would simply be a replacement in “personality, power or style. “
“Those who replace in politics will have to overthrow the government,” the prime minister said on Tuesday.