Faro Hospital with very high emergency room attendance and impact on waiting times

After TVI reported on Wednesday that around a dozen ambulances had accumulated at the emergency room of Faro hospital, while they waited for the patients being transported to be treated and the stretchers to be released, the Lusa news agency questioned the hospital administration, which assured that measures were being taken to reduce the constraints encountered.

«It is confirmed that in recent days there have been abnormally high peaks in the number of patients transported by ambulance to the Emergency Department of Faro Hospital, that is, evidencing situations of greater complexity, which has caused some constraints in waiting times, given the need to accommodate patients», justified the ULS of Algarve in a written response sent to Lusa.

The Algarve health unit also said that the “Clinical Management is taking several measures to reduce existing constraints”, but without specifying which ones and without going into further detail on the matter.

A source from the Portuguese Nurses Union ( SEP ) in the Algarve told Lusa that there has been a “large influx” to the ULS units in the Algarve, which include the hospitals in Faro, Portimão and Lagos, but stressed that this is “a situation that occurs every year” in the summer, without the necessary measures being taken, such as hiring professionals in short supply.

Alda Pereira, from SEP in the Algarve , recalled that the region has an exponential increase in population during the summer and the health services, which are already working with fewer human resources than expected, end up not responding as quickly as expected.

“At this time, the population could even triple or quadruple, and the Summer Plan does not safeguard these situations”, he considered, stressing that there are services that contact the union because “they do not have nurses to work” due to the lack of human resources.

The SEP director gave the example of the emergency service, which should have more than 80 professionals and only has around 70, highlighting that this situation also occurs with other services and other professional classes, such as doctors or operational assistants.

With the lack of human resources and the high turnout, the wear and tear is greater and some professionals leave the services or end up with burnout, further reducing the number of available professionals.

The high influx, combined with the lack of professionals, causes an “increase in waiting times” and “inefficiency in the times in which people should be assessed”.

“Despite the efforts being made to hire nurses, by opening competitions, it is not enough, because it is also necessary to motivate professionals”, said Alda Pereira, stressing that this situation then “is reflected in everything else”.

Lusa also tried to hear from union representatives of the medical class, but without success.