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The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, recognizes that “no unit of the National Health Service is free of pressure” and admits that mortality levels with Covid-19 are maintained high “in the next few days“.
Marta Temido was at the Peñafiel hospital to learn about the situation at the Tâmega e Sousa Hospital Center (CHTS), whose overcrowding due to the pandemic was news. Said the CHTS already “registered some relief the result of some transfers in recent days ”to the Hospital da Universidade Fernando Pessoa, the Hospital Center of Trás-os-Montes, among others. But he considers it “natural” that there is greater pressure in that place.
The Penafiel Hospital is located in an area that, geographically, is in the center of the hurricane at this time. It is natural that there was more pressure. No NHS hospital unit is free from pressure. “
Asked about a report from nurses that says that other hospitals do not receive patients because they consider that Hospital Penafiel is not prepared, Temido says that this would be “unacceptable from an ethical and human point of view.”
The minister acknowledges, however, that there are several hospitals in the north of the country that “are feeling great pressure to seek patients.” “We are not free from this pressure and high mortality in the next few days.”, Anticipa.
Regarding requests for help in hiring more health professionals, Marta Temido said that, since the beginning of the pandemic, “we have an exceptional hiring regime that allows us to hire all professionals in the market.” Alone, right now, “the situation we face is that the market does not have the availability that you have on other occasions and there are many professionals who got sick ”.
The market has no people available be hired and therefore we are using other ways to solve the problem. “
The minister explained that the fact that the region has a high incidence of new cases has meant that many professionals – “more than 200” – are also infected. “Is that has a significant influence on responsiveness”.
Marta Temido asked not to “lower our guard” and acknowledged that health professionals are “tired.” “We need to relieve the pressure upstream because if 10 million people are infected, there is no capacity to respond.”
Another aspect “that worries us the most” is the conduct of epidemiological surveys “and our ability to respond to them”. The minister met with the Vale do Sousa Norte Health Center Group (ACES) to analyze “the delay in conducting epidemiological surveys” and the best way to respond to these delays. “At this moment, the public health unit is managing to carry out about 300 consultations per day”, but there are other consultations with more days that “accumulate” and that the minister wants to recover in the next 15 days to three weeks.
