As of 9:20 AM, the average waiting time for the first assessment was 15 hours and 06 minutes for urgent patients (yellow tag) and 16 hours and 09 minutes for less urgent cases (green tag).
The general emergency department at Hospital Prof. Doutor Fernando Fonseca, commonly known as Hospital Amadora-Sintra, had a total of 43 patients waiting. More than half (20) were urgent cases, alongside 21 less urgent (green tag) and two non-urgent (blue tag) patients.
An official from the Amadora-Sintra Local Health Unit explained that the emergency team was short by one member in the afternoon and evening due to personal reasons, expressing optimism that the situation would improve throughout the day.
At 10:00 AM, the actual average waiting time in the emergency department was six hours.
The hospital administration has expressed plans to establish dedicated teams for the Emergency Department by the end of the year, creating an Integrated Responsibility Center (CRI), similar to what exists at Hospital S. José.
The same hospital official also noted that over 20% of hospital stays are occupied by social patients—individuals who have been discharged but remain in the hospital—posing challenges for admitting emergency patients.
The hospital aims to establish a unit for social admissions on its premises, with approximately 70 beds.
This hospital serves a total of 600,000 users, roughly one-third of whom do not have a family doctor.
Earlier this year, the Amadora-Sintra Local Health Unit joined the “Call First, Save Lives” project, aimed at reducing emergency service overload by promoting prior contact with the SNS24 Line.
At the time, around 55% of attendances in the emergency department of Hospital Fernando Fonseca were deemed non-urgent or less urgent, straining the service.
According to the triage system, very urgent cases (orange) should be attended within 10 minutes of triage, while urgent cases (yellow) are recommended to be addressed within 60 minutes, and less urgent cases (green) within 120 minutes.
