“This is another tragic case that, in my view, reflects a great disorganization of the entire system,” said Carlos Cortes, referring to the case reported by RTP about a 31-week pregnant woman who lost her baby after being referred to a hospital over an hour away from her residence.
“It is absolutely necessary to try to understand what happened. We must ascertain the facts first, to assign responsibility, and above all, develop all mechanisms to prevent this from happening again, despite another serious incident occurring last week,” Carlos Cortes stated.
For the chairman of the Portuguese Medical Association, this situation “demonstrates a huge disorganization of the National Health Service in an area that has faced difficulties in the past year and recent years,” referencing the closure of obstetric emergency services.
Carlos Cortes criticized the simultaneous closures of obstetric services at the three hospitals on Lisbon’s south bank, an area he described as having “enormous difficulty responding in the maternity area.”
“This cannot happen. The responsibility should not lie with the hospitals themselves, which must coordinate, but rather with an entity above them created for this purpose, the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service,” he argued.
The chairman questioned the role of the SNS Executive Directorate, suggesting it either lacks necessary tools for effective coordination or is severely failing in its primary function of coordinating hospitals to prevent scenarios where pregnant women on the south bank of the Tejo face closed maternity services, leaving Cascais Hospital as the only option.
According to RTP, the pregnant woman unsuccessfully contacted the Saúde 24 hotline and ultimately called 112, leading to the dispatch of Barreiro firefighters. She was transported to Cascais because the S. Bernardo Hospital in Setúbal was over capacity, a claim later denied by the Ministry of Health (MS).
“Contrary to reports, the refusal of assistance to the pregnant woman due to the closure of obstetric emergency services in the Setúbal Peninsula is false,” the MS stated in a release, adding that “the patient received specialized medical support” from the Emergency and Resuscitation Medical Vehicle during transit to Cascais Hospital.
The Ministry explained that due to the 31-week preterm pregnancy, it was necessary to direct the patient to a hospital with specialized perinatal (neonatology) care.
The medical chairman emphasized the need to ensure if one maternity service is closed, another nearby remains open.
“What cannot happen is for all of them to close simultaneously in the same area, as occurred in this case and has happened in several other serious and tragic situations,” Carlos Cortes stressed.
