Data from the National Health Service (SNS) portal indicated that, at the time consulted by the Lusa news agency, 51 urgent patients (yellow bracelet) at the Emergency Department of Hospital Fernando Fonseca (Amadora-Sintra) were waiting an average of 17 hours and 12 minutes for an initial evaluation.
The wait for the 12 very urgent patients (orange bracelet) was 12 minutes, and for the 54 less urgent patients (green bracelet), it was two hours and 46 minutes.
An official source from the Amadora-Sintra Local Health Unit explained that since last week, the hospital has seen higher-than-usual attendance in the general emergency service, with a particularly high number of urgent patients.
“Many of these patients have decompensated chronic diseases requiring more detailed clinical evaluation and longer observation and stay in the service,” the source stated.
The same source noted an increasing incidence of respiratory diseases, also contributing to the rise in demand.
“The greater complexity of clinical cases is impacting waiting times, despite efforts being made by the teams,” they said, expressing hope that average waiting times might decrease in the coming hours.
The hospital urges patients to contact the National Health Service Contact Center – SNS24 (808242424) before heading to the emergency department to avoid unnecessary visits.
Garcia de Orta Hospital in Almada also reported high average waiting times, with 54 urgent patients waiting at 2:00 PM for six hours and twenty-two minutes for their first evaluation.
The average wait for two very urgent patients was one hour and eight minutes, and for the 13 less urgent patients, it was three hours and thirteen minutes.
According to the triage system, very urgent situations (orange) should be attended to within 10 minutes following triage, urgent cases (yellow) within 60 minutes, and less urgent cases (green) within 120 minutes.
Information from the SNS Portal states, “The calculation of the average time is given by the average of the time elapsed since the patient entered the phase they are in (waiting for triage, waiting for first observation or under observation).”
