The alert from the Secretary-General of SIM, Nuno Rodrigues, follows the death of a woman who was 38 weeks pregnant, just days after being discharged from the hospital. Initially, only the records of hospital consultations were available, and it was later revealed that the patient had been under primary healthcare since July.
The ULS Amadora-Sintra explained that this situation was due to “the absence of a fully integrated clinical information system, which allows for the automatic sharing of data and medical records between different services and units.”
Nuno Rodrigues explained that the issue is related to the coexistence of two IT systems: Sorian, used by the hospital when it operated under a Public-Private Partnership, and SClínico, used in primary healthcare.
“With the integration of primary healthcare into ULS Amadora-Sintra, the truth is that two systems remain (…) and apparently the issue of interoperability is still unresolved,” he noted.
The Secretary-General warned that “the absence of total integration” between the two systems “continues to hinder full access to clinical data, potentially compromising the decision-making capacity of professionals and, consequently, patient safety.”
He exemplified with his experience: “Patients I need to consult who have been through Amadora-Sintra (…) I cannot access the hospitalization part. I can only access primary healthcare and emergency parts.”
According to Nuno Rodrigues, this problem is common in other hospitals, such as Beatriz Ângelo in Loures, which was also a PPP, and needs to be resolved by the hospital boards and the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health.
He also pointed out factors hindering integration, like professionals’ resistance to changing systems and technical incidents such as the two blackouts that occurred this year.
The President of the National Federation of Doctors, Joana Bordalo e Sá, said that such situations do not surprise her.
“We are not surprised that the IT system is not functioning fully or in an integrated manner because there has never been a serious investment, and it is not a priority for this Government of Luís Montenegro, nor for Ana Paula Martins, to modernize obsolete IT systems,” the union leader stated.
Regarding the case of the death of the 36-year-old pregnant woman admitted to Hospital Amadora-Sintra in cardiorespiratory arrest, who eventually died, along with the baby, Nuno Rodrigues stated that “these are very complex clinical situations that can indeed happen.”
He advocated the necessity for “a good network of emergency and pre-hospital response from INEM to provide the best possible response.”
Commenting on this case, Joana Bordalo e Sá said that “it’s always easy to blame someone” and argued that the Health Minister and the Prime Minister should take “responsibility for everything.”
“That’s what they should do,” she stressed, again demanding the resignation of Ana Paula Martins from the position of Health Minister.
“The National Federation of Doctors was perhaps among the first to demand her resignation in the summer of 2024 when problems with pregnant women began to arise, and now everyone is demanding her resignation, and rightly so,” she emphasized.
Joana Bordalo e Sá said that the Prime Minister had the opportunity to change the leadership of the Health portfolio and did not.
“From the moment he decided to keep her, it’s because he is complicit and, ultimately, needs someone to execute his policies which, as has been understood, aren’t steering health anywhere,” she criticized.
