Nineteen doctors from the General Emergency Service have issued an open letter to the administration, warning of a capacity loss and the imminent risk of service breakdown if the current direction is not reversed.
When asked about this warning following a meeting with a delegation from the Ordem dos Médicos regarding the emergency situation after the opening of the new Sintra Hospital’s basic emergency unit, ULS Amadora-Sintra President Carlos Sá stated to journalists that he received it with “a lot of attention and care.”
The specialists assert that the letter is “the only form of appeal” they have left, following several attempts at formal and informal dialogue. Carlos Sá clarified that he has been meeting with team leaders.
In response to the letter, Carlos Sá announced that the board will start meeting individually with each doctor, “so that individually” solutions may be found.
“In cases where—and we are convinced this will be in most cases—it’s possible to find a solution, excellent, because we know any alternative is only viable with the doctors, not against them,” he stated.
Carlos Sá emphasized his desire for doctors to “continue being, as they have been, part of the solution,” but stressed that “now, everyone has to be sensible.”
The specialists’ letter warns that “excessive turnover, time dispersion, and the accumulation of functions in different units distort the concept of Service and seriously compromise the safety of care provided.”
Carlos Sá acknowledged that the emergency professionals “are overloaded,” but asserted that “they are today, as they were a year ago, two years, and three years ago.”
“We indeed have a problem with the overload of emergency professionals,” he said, praising “the commitment and dedication they put into their daily function, which is incomparable and recognized by the administration.”
The president, who assumed office four months ago, mentioned there is “a different issue” related to the distribution of demand and human resources in the emergency department over 24 hours.
“We observed that, at certain times, we can redirect people from the morning period to the afternoon. What we are doing is adapting, redirecting people from one period to another, to better serve the population,” he explained.
When asked if the scheduling criticisms stem from this change, he affirmed, explaining that some health professionals have been accustomed to a certain schedule for many years and “have not been very flexible” in changing it.
Regarding whether doctors are informed in advance of this change, he stated that “in most cases, this change hasn’t even been implemented yet because there hasn’t been acceptance.”
“What we are doing is negotiating calmly and serenely these changes with the staff, always for the benefit of people relying on the emergency daily who cannot continue to wait 16 to 18 hours,” he argued.
The ULS is looking to optimize, taking the opportunity from the opening of the new Sintra Hospital, along with its current infrastructure and medical resources, to improve responses while ensuring and safeguarding patient safety.
He indicated that ULS Amadora-Sintra has 63 new doctors in the hospital area, and the new Sintra Hospital will have at least three additional clinicians at the beginning of August, besides the current six doctors, five of whom transitioned from Algueirão Mem-Martins’ previous basic emergency unit.
