“In terms of the data we have, in terms of assistance, the necessary assistance was provided,” said the commission’s president, Alberto Caldas Afonso.
The pediatrician was speaking after the commission’s meeting on Sunday to discuss the cases of a pregnant woman from Barreiro who was transferred to Hospital de Cascais, and another woman who lost her baby after being attended to at five hospitals.
“These are always unfortunate situations, but they are situations that unfortunately occurred,” he noted, indicating that “no hospital” refused to admit the pregnant women.
According to Caldas Afonso, the guidance regarding the massive placental abruption “was correctly followed” in the case of the pregnant woman from Barreiro who lost her baby after being transferred to Hospital de Cascais last week.
“These are completely unpredictable situations associated with high mortality worldwide. This is what happened in the second situation. In the first situation, the visits to the five hospitals are perfectly validated,” he said.
“Very well-guided, the mother enters Hospital Santa Maria [Lisbon] with the fetus with a perfectly normal trace without any signs of risk. And it happened that (…) a normal delivery can turn into a super complicated and severe delivery,” he explained.
The commission’s president added that, in the case recorded on June 22, the “baby suddenly went into fetal distress.”
“A massive placental abruption is something perfectly unpredictable (…). The first situation would be a normal delivery. (…) During the course of the delivery, there was a process of acute asphyxia, which led to an instrumental delivery via caesarean section,” he emphasized.
The doctor highlighted that due to the scarcity of human resources, the northern region of Setúbal “must have a shared response” from the gynecology and obstetrics emergency.
“The constraints (…) I think they are ending… beginning to be completely overcome. And I think, from the data we know, that from September this is perfectly assured. [Hospital] Garcia de Orta will always be open. This is a path that must be taken. We will try to do it sooner because there is no reason, with this functioning, for any pregnant woman to have to cross the bridge,” he observed.
The clinician also justified the difficulties in ensuring the functionality of gynecology and obstetrics emergencies with the inability to attract obstetricians, advocating for the creation of incentives to prevent these professionals from leaving the National Health Service (SNS).
“We do not have obstetricians. We have to know how to motivate them. For that, the matter of payment is fundamental,” he said, indicating that according to the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, “authorization is given” and that these incentives “will make it possible to retain more people.”
The National Commission for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health also identified “serious problems” in the emergency unit of Vila Franca de Xira Hospital, which “has a very small number of professionals,” and in Braga Hospital, due to management model issues.
“People had a remuneration system that was attractive because that’s where we need to go, it’s no use. It’s not a question of using the name PPP [public-private partnership]. If not, people, having alternatives, leave,” he stressed.
