In the first two months of the year, 32 pregnant women were referred to private sector maternity hospitals, according to the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS), which stresses that these cases have been occasional.
In total, of the 4,140 births, less than 1.5% were referred to units contracted with the SNS whenever the installed capacity was filled in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, which has had the greatest difficulty in responding to these situations due to the lack of doctors.
When the capacity of the SNS is full, in this region, the plan defined by the DE-SNS allows the Urgent Patient Guidance Center of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (CODU/INEM) to guide pregnant women in labor, with more than 36 weeks of gestation and no risk factors, to private sector hospitals.
In the note accompanying the new gynecology/obstetrics emergency room map, the DE-SNS stresses that the capacity of the SNS, working as a network, “has been able to respond to needs”, only referring an average of one pregnant woman every two days to the private sector to avoid “travel to more distant institutions”.
The DE-SNS recognizes the shortage of gynecology/obstetrics and neonatology/pediatrics doctors in Portugal, stressing that this is a situation that occurs at international level.
According to World Health Organization forecasts, this situation is likely to continue “in the medium term”, he adds.
The SNS Executive Board has decided to maintain until the end of April the Operation ‘Safe Birth’ scheme that was in force during the first quarter.
Thus, 28 of the 43 services will operate uninterruptedly, two maternity wards will only see referred patients and eight will have days off due to a lack of doctors.
