On World Health Day, which focuses this year on maternal and neonatal health, the Portuguese health regulatory entity ERS has disclosed an analysis of 5,901 complaints related to the Gynecology, Obstetrics, and Gynecology/Obstetrics departments for the designated period. These complaints predominantly addressed issues of “access to healthcare,” “patient safety and care,” and “user focus.”
The report specifies that 64% of these complaints pertained to a specific category concerning restricted access to consultations.
Further classification by the entity revealed five additional specific categories, with 14% of complaints regarding “Restricted access to obstetric ultrasounds,” 12% related to “Obstetric violence,” 6% to “Restricted access to Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy,” 3% regarding “Closure of obstetric emergency services,” and 2% to “Constraints in referrals to medical specialties.”
In an informative bulletin, ERS noted that in terms of thematic distribution, the most prevalent issue in complaints was the appropriateness and pertinence of healthcare/procedures, cited 2,636 times, followed by the timeliness of responses, noted 1,353 times.
The regulatory body explained that each complaint might involve multiple topics, which accounts for the number of thematic mentions exceeding the total number of complaints.
Other topics with over a thousand references included the right to receive appropriate treatment humanely, with promptness, technical correctness, and respect for privacy (1,140 references), and the technical quality of healthcare/procedures (1,097 references).
These are followed by the quality of health information provided (940 references), support during care delivery (764), adherence to the Maximum Response Time Guarantees rules (495), informed and clarified consent (178), and violence/abuse/harassment (64).
