The data available on the National Health Service (SNS) portal indicates that as of 9:00 a.m. today, there was no waiting time for patients with yellow bracelets (urgent).
Meanwhile, patients with green bracelets (less urgent) faced an average wait time of 1 hour and 46 minutes. In total, 10 patients were waiting, with four considered urgent cases.
The Amadora-Sintra Hospital acknowledges that the pressure on emergency services has been exacerbated by high demand, serving a population of about 600,000 users, one-third of whom do not have a family doctor.
Additionally, the hospital has over 20% of its admissions classified as social admissions — cases of patients with clinical discharge who remain hospitalized due to the lack of social support — which hinders the admission of new emergency patients, according to an official hospital source.
To alleviate the burden and improve response, the hospital plans to implement an Integrated Responsibility Center (CRI) for Emergencies by the end of the year, with dedicated teams, similar to the model already applied at other units such as São José Hospital.
Earlier this year, the Fernando Fonseca Hospital joined the national project “Call First, Save Lives,” which encourages users to contact the SNS 24 Line before heading to the emergency room.
The measure aims to reduce non-urgent consultations, which at the time accounted for about 55% of episodes.
The administration emphasizes ongoing efforts to reorganize service flows and enhance response capacity, particularly by establishing a unit with 70 beds for social admissions on the hospital grounds, thus freeing up space for patients who genuinely require urgent hospital care.
