The internal IT system of Portugal’s National Health Service (SNS) has been down since the early hours of Thursday, September 18, affecting several hospitals across the country.
As a result, doctors are unable to access patients’ medical records, conduct examinations, or make prescriptions. This disruption poses a risk to scheduled consultations and surgeries today.
Neither the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health (SPMS) nor the government have commented on the issue thus far.
Joana Bordalo e Sá of FNAM confirmed in an interview that the IT system in some health centers and hospitals “was and, in some cases, still is, completely down.”
She stated, “This once again demonstrates the technological fragility in which Minister Ana Paula Martins and Prime Minister Luís Montenegro maintain the SNS.”
“This is a serious disinvestment in digital systems that jeopardizes not only the work of doctors and other health professionals but, above all, patient safety because we are hindered from viewing clinical information, making prescriptions, or viewing examinations,” she emphasized. She added that “if this is not resolved, surgeries and consultations indeed cannot be performed.”
FNAM advises doctors to “submit and record their exemption from responsibility” as they “cannot be held accountable for failures resulting from governmental inaction.”
[News in development]
