More than 60,000 children were born this year, until the end of November, in National Health Service (SNS) facilities, an increase of 2.3% compared to the same period last year.
According to figures released today by the SNS Executive Directorate (DE-SNS), 60,613 babies were born, compared to 59,171 at the end of November last year.
Even in the period from June to November, the most critical time due to vacations but also to limitations resulting from doctors’ unwillingness to provide emergency services beyond 150 hours a year, the SNS carried out more deliveries this year than last year: 34,274 this year compared to 33,903 in 2022.
In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region (LVT) alone, excluding the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste (closed for part of the year to carry out work in its delivery room), “from January to November 2023, 22,629 children were born compared to 22,018 in 2022 (i.e. an increase of around 3%),” the DE-SNS said in a statement.
Between July and November, INEM sent 111 pregnant women to private hospitals in the LVT region, less than one pregnant woman a day. “As around 69 births are carried out every day in this region, this means that 99% of the cases were responded to by the SNS,” the statement added.
The DE-SNS stresses that despite all the problems, the SNS network worked, that no pregnant woman was left unattended and that all the more complex deliveries were carried out in the SNS, and, “apart from the occasional case due to a deficiency in the use of the system, the response was always close”.
In the statement, the SNS executive board talks about the international shortage of gynecology/obstetrics doctors, the “complex planning” that needs to be done, and asks pregnant women to always contact the SNS24 line or INEM in case of urgency/emergency before going to a health institution.
